diff --git a/core/corehttp/gateway.go b/core/corehttp/gateway.go
index b393bc77865..8dbe4d6b90e 100644
--- a/core/corehttp/gateway.go
+++ b/core/corehttp/gateway.go
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import (
 type GatewayConfig struct {
 	Headers      map[string][]string
 	Writable     bool
+	FetchBlocks  bool
 	PathPrefixes []string
 }
 
@@ -26,13 +27,14 @@ func ConfigFromNode(n *core.IpfsNode) (*GatewayConfig, error) {
 	gc := &GatewayConfig{
 		Headers:      cfg.Gateway.HTTPHeaders,
 		PathPrefixes: cfg.Gateway.PathPrefixes,
+		FetchBlocks:  cfg.Gateway.FetchBlocks,
 	}
 	return gc, nil
 }
 
 func GatewayOption(gc GatewayConfig, paths ...string) ServeOption {
 	return func(n *core.IpfsNode, _ net.Listener, mux *http.ServeMux) (*http.ServeMux, error) {
-		gateway := newGatewayHandler(n, gc, coreapi.NewCoreAPI(n))
+		gateway := newGatewayHandler(n, gc, coreapi.NewCoreAPI(n, !gc.FetchBlocks))
 
 		for _, p := range paths {
 			mux.Handle(p+"/", gateway)
diff --git a/docs/config.md b/docs/config.md
index 33dc9d3aae4..f4b9b4d5af8 100644
--- a/docs/config.md
+++ b/docs/config.md
@@ -229,6 +229,11 @@ A boolean to configure whether the gateway is writeable or not.
 
 Default: `false`
 
+- `FetchBlocks`
+A boolean to configure whether the gateway should fetch blocks from network to satisfy requests.
+
+Default: `true`
+
 - `PathPrefixes`
 TODO
 
diff --git a/repo/config/gateway.go b/repo/config/gateway.go
index a8ba7059071..ca13fcc8837 100644
--- a/repo/config/gateway.go
+++ b/repo/config/gateway.go
@@ -6,4 +6,5 @@ type Gateway struct {
 	RootRedirect string
 	Writable     bool
 	PathPrefixes []string
+	FetchBlocks  bool // Fetch blocks for requests
 }
diff --git a/repo/config/init.go b/repo/config/init.go
index 2b1def8b522..8a7fbf77f35 100644
--- a/repo/config/init.go
+++ b/repo/config/init.go
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ func Init(out io.Writer, nBitsForKeypair int) (*Config, error) {
 		Gateway: Gateway{
 			RootRedirect: "",
 			Writable:     false,
+			FetchBlocks:  true,
 			PathPrefixes: []string{},
 			HTTPHeaders: map[string][]string{
 				"Access-Control-Allow-Origin":  []string{"*"},
diff --git a/test/sharness/t0110-gateway.sh b/test/sharness/t0110-gateway.sh
index c5a4aa39c75..ae92a4da739 100755
--- a/test/sharness/t0110-gateway.sh
+++ b/test/sharness/t0110-gateway.sh
@@ -195,4 +195,30 @@ test_expect_success "GET compact blocks succeeds" '
 
 test_kill_ipfs_daemon
 
+test_expect_success "set FetchBlocks to false in config" '
+  ipfs config --bool=false Gateway.FetchBlocks
+'
+
+test_launch_ipfs_daemon
+
+port=$GWAY_PORT
+apiport=$API_PORT
+
+test_expect_success "try fetching not present key from offline gateway" '
+  echo "hi" | ipfs add --hash-only -Q > hi.hash
+  test_expect_code 22 curl -f "http://127.0.0.1:$port/ipfs/$(cat hi.hash)"
+'
+
+test_expect_success "try fetching present key from offline gateway" '
+  echo "hi" | ipfs add -Q > hi.hash &&
+  echo "http://127.0.0.1:$port/ipfs/$(cat hi.hash)" &&
+  curl -f "http://127.0.0.1:$port/ipfs/$(cat hi.hash)"
+'
+
+test_kill_ipfs_daemon
+
+test_expect_success "set FetchBlocks to true in config" '
+  ipfs config --bool=true Gateway.FetchBlocks
+'
+
 test_done