diff --git a/src/main.ts b/src/main.ts
index 5863591..294e30a 100644
--- a/src/main.ts
+++ b/src/main.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ import {computeEnv} from './env.js';
 import {combineStreams} from './stream.js';
 import readline from 'node:readline';
 import {_parse} from 'cross-spawn';
+import {NonZeroExitError} from './non-zero-exit-error.js';
+
+export {NonZeroExitError};
 
 export interface Output {
   stderr: string;
@@ -188,6 +191,10 @@ export class ExecProcess implements Result {
     if (this._thrownError) {
       throw this._thrownError;
     }
+
+    if (this.exitCode !== 0 && this.exitCode !== undefined) {
+      throw new NonZeroExitError(this);
+    }
   }
 
   protected async _waitForOutput(): Promise<Output> {
@@ -224,6 +231,10 @@ export class ExecProcess implements Result {
       throw this._thrownError;
     }
 
+    if (this.exitCode !== 0 && this.exitCode !== undefined) {
+      throw new NonZeroExitError(this);
+    }
+
     const result: Output = {
       stderr,
       stdout
diff --git a/src/non-zero-exit-error.ts b/src/non-zero-exit-error.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85692f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/non-zero-exit-error.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+import type {Result} from './main.js';
+
+export class NonZeroExitError extends Error {
+  public readonly result: Result;
+
+  public get exitCode(): number | undefined {
+    if (this.result.exitCode !== null) {
+      return this.result.exitCode;
+    }
+    return undefined;
+  }
+
+  public constructor(result: Result) {
+    super(`Process exited with non-zero status (${result.exitCode})`);
+
+    this.result = result;
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/test/main_test.ts b/src/test/main_test.ts
index 06ea12f..ad1d5b2 100644
--- a/src/test/main_test.ts
+++ b/src/test/main_test.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import {x} from '../main.js';
+import {x, NonZeroExitError} from '../main.js';
 import * as assert from 'node:assert/strict';
 import {test} from 'node:test';
 import os from 'node:os';
@@ -19,6 +19,14 @@ test('exec', async (t) => {
     assert.equal(proc.exitCode, 0);
   });
 
+  await t.test('non-zero exitCode throws', async () => {
+    const proc = x('node', ['-e', 'process.exit(1);']);
+    await assert.rejects(async () => {
+      await proc;
+    }, NonZeroExitError);
+    assert.equal(proc.exitCode, 1);
+  });
+
   await t.test('async iterator gets correct output', async () => {
     const proc = x('node', ['-e', "console.log('foo'); console.log('bar');"]);
     const lines = [];