diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1629ae251d..41521f081c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -678,6 +678,10 @@ datasets:
       # For `completion` datsets only, uses the provided field instead of `text` column
       field:
 
+# If false, the datasets will not be shuffled and will keep their original order in `datasets`.
+# The same applies to the `test_datasets` option and the `pretraining_dataset` option. Default is true.
+shuffle_merged_datasets: true
+
 # A list of one or more datasets to eval the model with.
 # You can use either test_datasets, or val_set_size, but not both.
 test_datasets:
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/config/models/input/v0_4_1/__init__.py b/src/axolotl/utils/config/models/input/v0_4_1/__init__.py
index ef31c05c22..b1c395bcc8 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/config/models/input/v0_4_1/__init__.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/config/models/input/v0_4_1/__init__.py
@@ -416,6 +416,7 @@ class Config:
 
     datasets: Optional[conlist(Union[SFTDataset, DPODataset], min_length=1)] = None  # type: ignore
     test_datasets: Optional[conlist(Union[SFTDataset, DPODataset], min_length=1)] = None  # type: ignore
+    shuffle_merged_datasets: Optional[bool] = True
     dataset_prepared_path: Optional[str] = None
     dataset_shard_num: Optional[int] = None
     dataset_shard_idx: Optional[int] = None
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/data.py b/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
index a560cf3944..b084276dae 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
@@ -443,8 +443,11 @@ def for_d_in_datasets(dataset_configs):
         dataset = concatenate_datasets(datasets)
 
         if len(datasets) > 1:
-            LOG.info("shuffle merged datasets")
-            dataset = dataset.shuffle(seed=seed)
+            if cfg.shuffle_merged_datasets:
+                LOG.debug("shuffle merged datasets")
+                dataset = dataset.shuffle(seed=seed)
+            else:
+                LOG.debug("NOT shuffling merged datasets")
 
         dataset, _ = process_datasets_for_packing(cfg, dataset, None)
 
@@ -847,7 +850,11 @@ def wrap_pretraining_dataset(
     else:
         encode = functools.partial(encode_pretraining, tokenizer, max_tokens)
 
-    dataset = dataset.shuffle(seed=seed, buffer_size=buffer_size)
+    if cfg.shuffle_merged_datasets:
+        dataset = dataset.shuffle(seed=seed, buffer_size=buffer_size)
+    else:
+        LOG.debug("NOT shuffling merged pretraining datasets")
+
     dataset = dataset.map(
         encode,
         batched=True,