diff --git a/docs/envvars.rst b/docs/envvars.rst
index aab4646f463..cd9e9e11288 100644
--- a/docs/envvars.rst
+++ b/docs/envvars.rst
@@ -141,7 +141,9 @@ Core Mesa environment variables
    features of the given language version if it's higher than what's
    normally reported. (for developers only)
 ``MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE``
-   if set to ``true``, disables the GLSL shader cache
+   if set to ``true``, disables the GLSL shader cache. If set to
+   ``false``, enables the GLSL shader cache when it is disabled by
+   default.
 ``MESA_GLSL_CACHE_MAX_SIZE``
    if set, determines the maximum size of the on-disk cache of compiled
    GLSL programs. Should be set to a number optionally followed by
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 59582318f47..4eb6a982424 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -908,11 +908,14 @@ elif _shader_cache == 'false'
 endif
 if _shader_cache != 'disabled'
   if host_machine.system() == 'windows'
-    if _shader_cache == 'enabled'
+    if ['enabled', 'default-disabled'].contains(_shader_cache)
       error('Shader Cache does not currently work on Windows')
     endif
   else
     pre_args += '-DENABLE_SHADER_CACHE'
+    if _shader_cache == 'default-disabled'
+      pre_args += '-DSHADER_CACHE_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT'
+    endif
     with_shader_cache = true
   endif
 endif
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 5bbf28f98dc..f35165eb685 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -186,8 +186,8 @@ option(
   'shader-cache',
   type : 'combo',
   value : 'auto',
-  choices : ['auto', 'true', 'false', 'enabled', 'disabled'],
-  description : 'Build with on-disk shader cache support'
+  choices : ['auto', 'true', 'false', 'enabled', 'disabled', 'default-disabled'],
+  description : 'Build with on-disk shader cache support. If set to default-disabled, the feature is only activated when environment variable MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE is set to false'
 )
 option(
   'vulkan-icd-dir',
diff --git a/src/compiler/glsl/tests/cache_test.c b/src/compiler/glsl/tests/cache_test.c
index ab36aa49266..76ea8e8b841 100644
--- a/src/compiler/glsl/tests/cache_test.c
+++ b/src/compiler/glsl/tests/cache_test.c
@@ -193,6 +193,19 @@ test_disk_cache_create(void)
 
    unsetenv("MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE");
 
+#ifdef SHADER_CACHE_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT
+   /* With SHADER_CACHE_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT, ensure that with
+    * MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE set to nothing, disk_cache_create returns NULL.
+    */
+   unsetenv("MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE");
+   cache = disk_cache_create("test", "make_check", 0);
+   expect_null(cache, "disk_cache_create with MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE unset "
+               " and SHADER_CACHE_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT build option");
+
+   /* For remaining tests, ensure that the cache is enabled. */
+   setenv("MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE", "false", 1);
+#endif /* SHADER_CACHE_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT */
+
    /* For the first real disk_cache_create() clear these environment
     * variables to test creation of cache in home directory.
     */
@@ -273,6 +286,10 @@ test_put_and_get(void)
    uint8_t one_KB_key[20], one_MB_key[20];
    int count;
 
+#ifdef SHADER_CACHE_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT
+   setenv("MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE", "false", 1);
+#endif /* SHADER_CACHE_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT */
+
    cache = disk_cache_create("test", "make_check", 0);
 
    disk_cache_compute_key(cache, blob, sizeof(blob), blob_key);
@@ -444,6 +461,10 @@ test_put_key_and_get_key(void)
                         { 0,  1, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49,
                          50, 55, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59};
 
+#ifdef SHADER_CACHE_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT
+   setenv("MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE", "false", 1);
+#endif /* SHADER_CACHE_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT */
+
    cache = disk_cache_create("test", "make_check", 0);
 
    /* First test that disk_cache_has_key returns false before disk_cache_put_key */
diff --git a/src/util/disk_cache_os.c b/src/util/disk_cache_os.c
index 9de004e99e5..d48fe877c56 100644
--- a/src/util/disk_cache_os.c
+++ b/src/util/disk_cache_os.c
@@ -873,7 +873,12 @@ disk_cache_enabled()
       return false;
 
    /* At user request, disable shader cache entirely. */
-   if (env_var_as_boolean("MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE", false))
+#ifdef SHADER_CACHE_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT
+   bool disable_by_default = true;
+#else
+   bool disable_by_default = false;
+#endif
+   if (env_var_as_boolean("MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE", disable_by_default))
       return false;
 
    return true;