diff --git a/Lib/test/test_capi/test_opt.py b/Lib/test/test_capi/test_opt.py
index 38c6fa4b47d0c9..25fc36dec93ddc 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_capi/test_opt.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_capi/test_opt.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 import textwrap
 import unittest
 import gc
+import os
 
 import _testinternalcapi
 
@@ -568,6 +569,8 @@ def testfunc(n):
         count = ops.count("_GUARD_IS_TRUE_POP") + ops.count("_GUARD_IS_FALSE_POP")
         self.assertLessEqual(count, 2)
 
+
+@unittest.skipIf(os.getenv("PYTHONUOPSOPTIMIZE", default=0) == 0, "Needs uop optimizer to run.")
 class TestUopsOptimization(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def _run_with_optimizer(self, testfunc, arg):
diff --git a/Python/optimizer_analysis.c b/Python/optimizer_analysis.c
index 9503dcc74656cd..47bfc8cf1061d9 100644
--- a/Python/optimizer_analysis.c
+++ b/Python/optimizer_analysis.c
@@ -810,9 +810,12 @@ _Py_uop_analyze_and_optimize(
 
     peephole_opt(frame, buffer, buffer_size);
 
-    err = uop_redundancy_eliminator(
-        (PyCodeObject *)frame->f_executable, buffer,
-        buffer_size, curr_stacklen, dependencies);
+    char *uop_optimize = Py_GETENV("PYTHONUOPSOPTIMIZE");
+    if (uop_optimize != NULL && *uop_optimize > '0') {
+        err = uop_redundancy_eliminator(
+            (PyCodeObject *)frame->f_executable, buffer,
+            buffer_size, curr_stacklen, dependencies);
+    }
 
     if (err == 0) {
         goto not_ready;