diff --git a/builtin/grep.c b/builtin/grep.c
index b1095362fb..454e263820 100644
--- a/builtin/grep.c
+++ b/builtin/grep.c
@@ -302,6 +302,9 @@ static int grep_cmd_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
 #endif
 	}
 
+	if (!strcmp(var, "submodule.recurse"))
+		recurse_submodules = git_config_bool(var, value);
+
 	return st;
 }
 
diff --git a/t/t7814-grep-recurse-submodules.sh b/t/t7814-grep-recurse-submodules.sh
index 3a58197f47..7184113b9b 100755
--- a/t/t7814-grep-recurse-submodules.sh
+++ b/t/t7814-grep-recurse-submodules.sh
@@ -33,6 +33,24 @@ test_expect_success 'grep correctly finds patterns in a submodule' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'grep finds patterns in a submodule via config' '
+	test_config submodule.recurse true &&
+	# expect from previous test
+	git grep -e "(3|4)" >actual &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'grep --no-recurse-submodules overrides config' '
+	test_config submodule.recurse true &&
+	cat >expect <<-\EOF &&
+	a:(1|2)d(3|4)
+	b/b:(3|4)
+	EOF
+
+	git grep -e "(3|4)" --no-recurse-submodules >actual &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'grep and basic pathspecs' '
 	cat >expect <<-\EOF &&
 	submodule/a:(1|2)d(3|4)