diff --git a/packages/wxt/e2e/tests/zip.test.ts b/packages/wxt/e2e/tests/zip.test.ts
index 3ff265aad..efde648f8 100644
--- a/packages/wxt/e2e/tests/zip.test.ts
+++ b/packages/wxt/e2e/tests/zip.test.ts
@@ -285,4 +285,26 @@ describe('Zipping', () => {
       expect(await project.fileExists(sourcesZip)).toBe(false);
     },
   );
+
+  it('exclude files in .zip except those with a bang !', async () => {
+    const project = new TestProject({
+      name: 'test',
+      version: '1.0.0',
+    });
+    project.addFile(
+      'entrypoints/background.ts',
+      'export default defineBackground(() => {});',
+    );
+    const unzipDir = project.resolvePath('.output/test-1.0.0-chrome');
+    const sourcesZip = project.resolvePath('.output/test-1.0.0-chrome.zip');
+
+    await project.zip({
+      zip: {
+        exclude: ['**/*.json', '!manifest.json'],
+      },
+    });
+
+    await extract(sourcesZip, { dir: unzipDir });
+    expect(await project.fileExists(unzipDir, 'manifest.json')).toBe(true);
+  });
 });
diff --git a/packages/wxt/src/core/zip.ts b/packages/wxt/src/core/zip.ts
index 092d5c27d..e155739af 100644
--- a/packages/wxt/src/core/zip.ts
+++ b/packages/wxt/src/core/zip.ts
@@ -121,9 +121,19 @@ async function zipDir(
       onlyFiles: true,
     })
   ).filter((relativePath) => {
+    const isNegated = options?.exclude?.some(
+      (option) =>
+        option.startsWith('!') && minimatch(relativePath, option.slice(1)),
+    );
+    if (isNegated) return true;
+    const updatedExcludeOptions = options?.exclude?.filter(
+      (option) => !option.startsWith('!'),
+    );
     return (
       options?.include?.some((pattern) => minimatch(relativePath, pattern)) ||
-      !options?.exclude?.some((pattern) => minimatch(relativePath, pattern))
+      !updatedExcludeOptions?.some((pattern) =>
+        minimatch(relativePath, pattern),
+      )
     );
   });
   const filesToZip = [