diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/config/serializeConfig.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/config/serializeConfig.ts
index 15d1a06103ea..005ccbfd8664 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/config/serializeConfig.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/config/serializeConfig.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import type { ResolvedConfig as ViteConfig } from 'vite'
+import { toArray } from '@vitest/utils'
 import type { ResolvedConfig, SerializedConfig } from '../types/config'
 
 export function serializeConfig(
@@ -46,11 +47,12 @@ export function serializeConfig(
     snapshotEnvironment: config.snapshotEnvironment,
     passWithNoTests: config.passWithNoTests,
     coverage: ((coverage) => {
-      const htmlReporter = coverage.reporter.find(([reporterName]) => reporterName === 'html') as [
+      const htmlReporter = toArray(coverage.reporter).find(([reporterName]) => reporterName === 'html') as [
         'html',
         { subdir?: string },
       ] | undefined
       const subdir = htmlReporter && htmlReporter[1]?.subdir
+
       return {
         reportsDirectory: coverage.reportsDirectory,
         provider: coverage.provider,
diff --git a/test/coverage-test/test/reporters.test.ts b/test/coverage-test/test/reporters.test.ts
index 518cd2c2b4cd..8b1deeb0692f 100644
--- a/test/coverage-test/test/reporters.test.ts
+++ b/test/coverage-test/test/reporters.test.ts
@@ -65,3 +65,22 @@ test('all reporter variants mixed', async () => {
   expect(files).toContain('lcov-report')
   expect(files).toContain('custom-text-report')
 })
+
+test('reporter as string while coverage disabled', async () => {
+  await runVitest({
+    include,
+    coverage: {
+      reporter: 'json',
+      enabled: false,
+    },
+  })
+})
+
+test('reporter as list of strings while coverage disabled', async () => {
+  await runVitest({
+    include,
+    coverage: {
+      reporter: ['json', 'lcov'],
+    },
+  })
+})