diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/commands/FetchCommand.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/commands/FetchCommand.java
index d3a79e668c5453..596c5c0a81539d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/commands/FetchCommand.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/commands/FetchCommand.java
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ public BlazeCommandResult exec(CommandEnvironment env, OptionsParsingResult opti
     PackageOptions pkgOptions = options.getOptions(PackageOptions.class);
     if (!pkgOptions.fetch) {
       return createFailedBlazeCommandResult(
-          env.getReporter(), Code.OPTIONS_INVALID, "You cannot run fetch with --fetch=false");
+          env.getReporter(), Code.OPTIONS_INVALID, "You cannot run fetch with --nofetch");
     }
     FetchOptions fetchOptions = options.getOptions(FetchOptions.class);
     int optionsCount =
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/commands/VendorCommand.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/commands/VendorCommand.java
index 5f4d72329edee4..1a12047b6a15b0 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/commands/VendorCommand.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/commands/VendorCommand.java
@@ -84,6 +84,11 @@ public BlazeCommandResult exec(CommandEnvironment env, OptionsParsingResult opti
           Code.OPTIONS_INVALID,
           "You cannot run vendor without specifying --vendor_dir");
     }
+    PackageOptions pkgOptions = options.getOptions(PackageOptions.class);
+    if (!pkgOptions.fetch) {
+      return createFailedBlazeCommandResult(
+          env.getReporter(), Code.OPTIONS_INVALID, "You cannot run vendor with --nofetch");
+    }
 
     LoadingPhaseThreadsOption threadsOption = options.getOptions(LoadingPhaseThreadsOption.class);
     SkyframeExecutor skyframeExecutor = env.getSkyframeExecutor();
diff --git a/src/test/py/bazel/bzlmod/bazel_vendor_test.py b/src/test/py/bazel/bzlmod/bazel_vendor_test.py
index a99169c4a7af69..df7173a0584816 100644
--- a/src/test/py/bazel/bzlmod/bazel_vendor_test.py
+++ b/src/test/py/bazel/bzlmod/bazel_vendor_test.py
@@ -96,6 +96,14 @@ def testBasicVendoring(self):
     self.assertIn('@bbb~1.0.marker', repos_vendored)
     self.assertIn('.vendorignore', repos_vendored)
 
+  def testVendorFailsWithNofetch(self):
+    self.ScratchFile('MODULE.bazel')
+    self.ScratchFile('BUILD')
+    _, _, stderr = self.RunBazel(
+        ['vendor', '--vendor_dir=vendor', '--nofetch'], allow_failure=True
+    )
+    self.assertIn('ERROR: You cannot run vendor with --nofetch', stderr)
+
   def testVendoringMultipleTimes(self):
     self.main_registry.createCcModule('aaa', '1.0')
     self.ScratchFile(