diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 723b4302ca..f0b039bc03 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ option('examples', type : 'feature', value : 'auto', description : 'Build exampl
 option('introspection', type : 'feature', value : 'auto', description : 'Generate introspection data')
 option('nls', type : 'feature', value : 'auto', description : 'Native language support (translations)')
 option('orc', type : 'feature', value : 'auto', description : 'Optimized Inner Loop Runtime Compiler (SIMD)')
-option('doc', type : 'feature', value : 'auto', description : 'Generate API documentation with hotdoc')
+option('doc', type : 'feature', value : 'disabled', description : 'Generate API documentation with hotdoc')
 option('gtk_doc', type : 'feature', value : 'disabled', description : 'Generate API documentation with gtk-doc')
 option('qt5', type : 'feature', value : 'auto', description : 'Qt5 toolkit support')
 option('qt6', type : 'feature', value : 'auto', description : 'Qt6 toolkit support')