The global operation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has averted 30 million new infections and nearly 8 million deaths; however, it has an impact on metabolic syndrome (MS) acquisition. As a result, there is growing concern about MS; but strangely the magnitude of MS in HIV-infected cohort, and its differential contribution ART status in Ethiopia has yet to be abundantly studied. Hence, the aim of this study was to estimate and evaluate the difference of the overall magnitude of MS among ART exposed and ART naïve people living with HIV (PLWH).An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted at the randomly chosen two hospitals and health centers, in Gedio zone, southern Ethiopia between December 29th, 2017 and January 22nd, 2019. Data were collected using the WHO three step tools. The collected data were fed into Epidata version.3.1 and exported to SPSS version 22 for analysis. The descriptive complex sample analysis method was employed, and the prevalence and differences between groups were computed with a 95% CI.A total of 633 (n = 422 ART and n = 211 ART naive) PLWH was involved, with the response rate of 92.1%. Of whom, 22.0% (95% CI: 19.0-25.4) of PLWH had MS. It was slightly higher in the ART-exposed (22.5%, 95% CI: 18.7-26.8) than ART naïve (20.9%, 95% CI: 15.2-27.1) group.The global magnitude of MS in the ART-exposed was relatively higher than ART naïve groups. This dictates the existence of HIV associated MS that necessitates immediate prevention and management strategies.