diff --git a/docs/environment-variables.md b/docs/environment-variables.md
index 66f0145724e5..0a5e1533bc4f 100644
--- a/docs/environment-variables.md
+++ b/docs/environment-variables.md
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ This document outlines environment variables that can be used to customize behav
 | `WORKFLOW_GC_PERIOD`                     | `time.Duration`     | `5m`                                                                                        | The periodicity for GC of workflows.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
 | `SEMAPHORE_NOTIFY_DELAY`                 | `time.Duration`     | `1s`                                                                                        | Tuning Delay when notifying semaphore waiters about availability in the semaphore                                                                                                                                                                                        |
 | `WATCH_CONTROLLER_SEMAPHORE_CONFIGMAPS` | `bool` | `true` | Whether to watch the Controller's ConfigMap and semaphore ConfigMaps for run-time changes. When disabled, the Controller will only read these ConfigMaps once and will have to be manually restarted to pick up new changes. |
+| `SKIP_WORKFLOW_DURATION_ESTIMATION` | `bool` | `false` | Whether to lookup resource usage from prior workflows to estimate usage for new workflows. |
 
 CLI parameters of the Controller can be specified as environment variables with the `ARGO_` prefix.
 For example:
diff --git a/workflow/controller/estimation/estimator_factory.go b/workflow/controller/estimation/estimator_factory.go
index 192f2a7c2513..74e087bd9a85 100644
--- a/workflow/controller/estimation/estimator_factory.go
+++ b/workflow/controller/estimation/estimator_factory.go
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3/persist/sqldb"
 	wfv1 "github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3/pkg/apis/workflow/v1alpha1"
+	"github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3/util/env"
 	"github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3/workflow/common"
 	"github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3/workflow/controller/indexes"
 	"github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3/workflow/hydrator"
@@ -28,12 +29,19 @@ type estimatorFactory struct {
 
 var _ EstimatorFactory = &estimatorFactory{}
 
+var (
+	skipWorkflowDurationEstimation = env.LookupEnvStringOr("SKIP_WORKFLOW_DURATION_ESTIMATION", "false")
+)
+
 func NewEstimatorFactory(wfInformer cache.SharedIndexInformer, hydrator hydrator.Interface, wfArchive sqldb.WorkflowArchive) EstimatorFactory {
 	return &estimatorFactory{wfInformer, hydrator, wfArchive}
 }
 
 func (f *estimatorFactory) NewEstimator(wf *wfv1.Workflow) (Estimator, error) {
 	defaultEstimator := &estimator{wf: wf}
+	if skipWorkflowDurationEstimation == "true" {
+		return defaultEstimator, nil
+	}
 	for labelName, indexName := range map[string]string{
 		common.LabelKeyWorkflowTemplate:        indexes.WorkflowTemplateIndex,
 		common.LabelKeyClusterWorkflowTemplate: indexes.ClusterWorkflowTemplateIndex,