diff --git a/remote-curl.c b/remote-curl.c
index a2696082fb..10fa8f1ac5 100644
--- a/remote-curl.c
+++ b/remote-curl.c
@@ -95,15 +95,16 @@ static struct discovery* discover_refs(const char *service)
 	struct strbuf buffer = STRBUF_INIT;
 	struct discovery *last = last_discovery;
 	char *refs_url;
-	int http_ret, is_http = 0;
+	int http_ret, maybe_smart = 0;
 
 	if (last && !strcmp(service, last->service))
 		return last;
 	free_discovery(last);
 
 	strbuf_addf(&buffer, "%sinfo/refs", url);
-	if (!prefixcmp(url, "http://") || !prefixcmp(url, "https://")) {
-		is_http = 1;
+	if ((!prefixcmp(url, "http://") || !prefixcmp(url, "https://")) &&
+	     git_env_bool("GIT_SMART_HTTP", 1)) {
+		maybe_smart = 1;
 		if (!strchr(url, '?'))
 			strbuf_addch(&buffer, '?');
 		else
@@ -131,7 +132,7 @@ static struct discovery* discover_refs(const char *service)
 	last->buf_alloc = strbuf_detach(&buffer, &last->len);
 	last->buf = last->buf_alloc;
 
-	if (is_http && 5 <= last->len && last->buf[4] == '#') {
+	if (maybe_smart && 5 <= last->len && last->buf[4] == '#') {
 		/* smart HTTP response; validate that the service
 		 * pkt-line matches our request.
 		 */
diff --git a/t/t5551-http-fetch.sh b/t/t5551-http-fetch.sh
index 380c17541e..5060879d6d 100755
--- a/t/t5551-http-fetch.sh
+++ b/t/t5551-http-fetch.sh
@@ -130,6 +130,18 @@ test_expect_success 'clone from auth-only-for-push repository' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'disable dumb http on server' '
+	git --git-dir="$HTTPD_DOCUMENT_ROOT_PATH/repo.git" \
+		config http.getanyfile false
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'GIT_SMART_HTTP can disable smart http' '
+	(GIT_SMART_HTTP=0 &&
+	 export GIT_SMART_HTTP &&
+	 cd clone &&
+	 test_must_fail git fetch)
+'
+
 test -n "$GIT_TEST_LONG" && test_set_prereq EXPENSIVE
 
 test_expect_success EXPENSIVE 'create 50,000 tags in the repo' '