diff --git a/mm/Kconfig.debug b/mm/Kconfig.debug
index 957d3da..a0c136a 100644
--- a/mm/Kconfig.debug
+++ b/mm/Kconfig.debug
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@
 	select PAGE_POISONING if !ARCH_SUPPORTS_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC
 	---help---
 	  Unmap pages from the kernel linear mapping after free_pages().
-	  This results in a large slowdown, but helps to find certain types
-	  of memory corruption.
+	  Depending on runtime enablement, this results in a small or large
+	  slowdown, but helps to find certain types of memory corruption.
 
 	  For architectures which don't enable ARCH_SUPPORTS_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC,
 	  fill the pages with poison patterns after free_pages() and verify
@@ -26,5 +26,19 @@
 	  that would result in incorrect warnings of memory corruption after
 	  a resume because free pages are not saved to the suspend image.
 
+	  By default this option will have a small overhead, e.g. by not
+	  allowing the kernel mapping to be backed by large pages on some
+	  architectures. Even bigger overhead comes when the debugging is
+	  enabled by DEBUG_PAGEALLOC_ENABLE_DEFAULT or the debug_pagealloc
+	  command line parameter.
+
+config DEBUG_PAGEALLOC_ENABLE_DEFAULT
+	bool "Enable debug page memory allocations by default?"
+	default n
+	depends on DEBUG_PAGEALLOC
+	---help---
+	  Enable debug page memory allocations by default? This value
+	  can be overridden by debug_pagealloc=off|on.
+
 config PAGE_POISONING
 	bool
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index fe4378f..36a0a79 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -478,7 +478,8 @@
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC
 unsigned int _debug_guardpage_minorder;
-bool _debug_pagealloc_enabled __read_mostly;
+bool _debug_pagealloc_enabled __read_mostly
+			= IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC_ENABLE_DEFAULT);
 bool _debug_guardpage_enabled __read_mostly;
 
 static int __init early_debug_pagealloc(char *buf)
@@ -489,6 +490,9 @@
 	if (strcmp(buf, "on") == 0)
 		_debug_pagealloc_enabled = true;
 
+	if (strcmp(buf, "off") == 0)
+		_debug_pagealloc_enabled = false;
+
 	return 0;
 }
 early_param("debug_pagealloc", early_debug_pagealloc);