diff --git a/xla/debug_options_flags.cc b/xla/debug_options_flags.cc
index 73d2c1143c34f..ee233faf5ff0b 100644
--- a/xla/debug_options_flags.cc
+++ b/xla/debug_options_flags.cc
@@ -292,6 +292,7 @@ DebugOptions DefaultDebugOptionsIgnoringFlags() {
   opts.set_xla_gpu_dot_merger_threshold_mb(32);
   opts.set_xla_enable_fast_math(false);
   opts.set_xla_gpu_experimental_parallel_collective_overlap_limit(1);
+  opts.set_xla_pjrt_allow_auto_layout_in_hlo(false);
   return opts;
 }
 
@@ -2056,6 +2057,13 @@ void MakeDebugOptionsFlags(std::vector<tsl::Flag>* flag_list,
       debug_options->xla_gpu_experimental_parallel_collective_overlap_limit(),
       "This controls how many in-flight collectives "
       "latency hiding scheduler can schedule."));
+  flag_list->push_back(tsl::Flag(
+      "xla_pjrt_allow_auto_layout_in_hlo",
+      bool_setter_for(&DebugOptions::set_xla_pjrt_allow_auto_layout_in_hlo),
+      debug_options->xla_pjrt_allow_auto_layout_in_hlo(),
+      "Experimental: Make unset entry computation layout mean auto layout "
+      "instead of default layout in HLO when run through PjRT. In other cases "
+      "(StableHLO or non-PjRT) the auto layout is already used."));
 }  // NOLINT(readability/fn_size)
 
 // Allocates flag_values and flag_objects; this function must not be called more
diff --git a/xla/pjrt/gpu/BUILD b/xla/pjrt/gpu/BUILD
index 914a0ff7cbb45..ae7cdd94e9dd8 100644
--- a/xla/pjrt/gpu/BUILD
+++ b/xla/pjrt/gpu/BUILD
@@ -180,6 +180,7 @@ xla_cc_test(
         "//xla/pjrt:pjrt_future",
         "//xla/pjrt:pjrt_stream_executor_client",
         "//xla/pjrt/distributed:in_memory_key_value_store",
+        "//xla/pjrt/plugin/xla_gpu:xla_gpu_client_options",
         "//xla/service:gpu_plugin",
         "//xla/service:platform_util",
         "//xla/stream_executor:device_memory",
diff --git a/xla/pjrt/gpu/se_gpu_pjrt_client_test.cc b/xla/pjrt/gpu/se_gpu_pjrt_client_test.cc
index f65c32bee9f7a..f75452299b580 100644
--- a/xla/pjrt/gpu/se_gpu_pjrt_client_test.cc
+++ b/xla/pjrt/gpu/se_gpu_pjrt_client_test.cc
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ limitations under the License.
 #include "xla/pjrt/pjrt_executable.h"
 #include "xla/pjrt/pjrt_future.h"
 #include "xla/pjrt/pjrt_stream_executor_client.h"
+#include "xla/pjrt/plugin/xla_gpu/xla_gpu_client_options.h"
 #include "xla/service/platform_util.h"
 #include "xla/shape.h"
 #include "xla/shape_util.h"
@@ -1753,5 +1754,37 @@ TEST(StreamExecutorGpuClientTest, GetDefaultLayout) {
   EXPECT_EQ(layout.element_size_in_bits(), 4);
 }
 
+TEST(StreamExecutorGpuClientTest, AutoLayoutIsSupported) {
+  const char* hlo_text = R"(
+  HloModule DotLayout,
+    entry_computation_layout={(f32[2,3,5],f32[3,4,5])->f32[5,2,4]{2,1,0}}
+
+  ENTRY dot {
+    p0 = f32[2,3,5]{2,1,0} parameter(0)
+    p1 = f32[3,4,5]{2,1,0} parameter(1)
+    ROOT dot.1330.10585 = f32[5,2,4]{2,1,0} dot(p0, p1),
+      lhs_batch_dims={2}, lhs_contracting_dims={1},
+      rhs_batch_dims={2}, rhs_contracting_dims={0}
+  })";
+
+  TF_ASSERT_OK_AND_ASSIGN(
+      std::unique_ptr<HloModule> m,
+      ParseAndReturnUnverifiedModule(
+          hlo_text, {}, HloParserOptions().set_fill_missing_layouts(false)));
+
+  TF_ASSERT_OK_AND_ASSIGN(auto client,
+                          GetStreamExecutorGpuClient(GpuClientOptions()));
+  CompileOptions compile_options;
+  compile_options.executable_build_options.mutable_debug_options()
+      ->set_xla_pjrt_allow_auto_layout_in_hlo(true);
+  XlaComputation computation = m->ToProto();
+  TF_ASSERT_OK_AND_ASSIGN(auto executable,
+                          client->Compile(computation, compile_options));
+  TF_ASSERT_OK_AND_ASSIGN(auto layouts, executable->GetParameterLayouts());
+  // Check that the assigned layouts are not default.
+  EXPECT_NE(layouts[0]->ToString(), "{2,1,0}");
+  EXPECT_NE(layouts[1]->ToString(), "{2,1,0}");
+}
+
 }  // namespace
 }  // namespace xla
diff --git a/xla/pjrt/utils.cc b/xla/pjrt/utils.cc
index b50fa31b648db..3b4130f0f8c7e 100644
--- a/xla/pjrt/utils.cc
+++ b/xla/pjrt/utils.cc
@@ -683,11 +683,14 @@ absl::Status DetermineArgumentLayoutsFromCompileOptions(
 
   // Assign a default layout based on `sharded_shape` to any array subshapes in
   // `dst_shape` that are missing layouts.
-  auto assign_layouts = [&choose_compact_layout_for_shape_function](
-                            const Shape& sharded_shape, Shape* dst_shape) {
+  const bool allow_auto_layout =
+      build_options && build_options->has_debug_options() &&
+      build_options->debug_options().xla_pjrt_allow_auto_layout_in_hlo();
+  auto assign_layouts = [&](const Shape& sharded_shape, Shape* dst_shape) {
     return ShapeUtil::ForEachMutableSubshapeWithStatus(
         dst_shape, [&](Shape* subshape, const ShapeIndex& idx) {
-          if (subshape->IsArray() && !subshape->has_layout()) {
+          if (subshape->IsArray() && !subshape->has_layout() &&
+              !allow_auto_layout) {
             CHECK(ShapeUtil::IndexIsValid(sharded_shape, idx));
             const Shape& sharded_subshape =
                 ShapeUtil::GetSubshape(sharded_shape, idx);
diff --git a/xla/xla.proto b/xla/xla.proto
index 803a5af0764c3..1778db2085783 100644
--- a/xla/xla.proto
+++ b/xla/xla.proto
@@ -1042,7 +1042,9 @@ message DebugOptions {
   }
   PGLEStrictnessLevel xla_gpu_pgle_accuracy_checker = 341;
 
-  // Next id: 344
+  bool xla_pjrt_allow_auto_layout_in_hlo = 344;
+
+  // Next id: 345
 
   // Extra options to pass to the compilation backend (e.g. LLVM); specific
   // interpretation of these values is left to the backend.