diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 6f434e8685..1ae4303c71 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -4014,6 +4014,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "log",
  "minidumper",
  "paths",
+ "release_channel",
  "smol",
  "workspace-hack",
 ]
diff --git a/crates/crashes/Cargo.toml b/crates/crashes/Cargo.toml
index 641a97765a..afb4936b63 100644
--- a/crates/crashes/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/crashes/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ crash-handler.workspace = true
 log.workspace = true
 minidumper.workspace = true
 paths.workspace = true
+release_channel.workspace = true
 smol.workspace = true
 workspace-hack.workspace = true
 
diff --git a/crates/crashes/src/crashes.rs b/crates/crashes/src/crashes.rs
index cfb4b57d5d..5b9ae0b546 100644
--- a/crates/crashes/src/crashes.rs
+++ b/crates/crashes/src/crashes.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 use crash_handler::CrashHandler;
 use log::info;
 use minidumper::{Client, LoopAction, MinidumpBinary};
+use release_channel::{RELEASE_CHANNEL, ReleaseChannel};
 
 use std::{
     env,
@@ -9,7 +10,7 @@ use std::{
     path::{Path, PathBuf},
     process::{self, Command},
     sync::{
-        OnceLock,
+        LazyLock, OnceLock,
         atomic::{AtomicBool, Ordering},
     },
     thread,
@@ -22,7 +23,14 @@ pub static CRASH_HANDLER: AtomicBool = AtomicBool::new(false);
 pub static REQUESTED_MINIDUMP: AtomicBool = AtomicBool::new(false);
 const CRASH_HANDLER_TIMEOUT: Duration = Duration::from_secs(60);
 
+pub static GENERATE_MINIDUMPS: LazyLock<bool> = LazyLock::new(|| {
+    *RELEASE_CHANNEL != ReleaseChannel::Dev || env::var("ZED_GENERATE_MINIDUMPS").is_ok()
+});
+
 pub async fn init(id: String) {
+    if !*GENERATE_MINIDUMPS {
+        return;
+    }
     let exe = env::current_exe().expect("unable to find ourselves");
     let zed_pid = process::id();
     // TODO: we should be able to get away with using 1 crash-handler process per machine,
@@ -138,6 +146,9 @@ impl minidumper::ServerHandler for CrashServer {
 }
 
 pub fn handle_panic() {
+    if !*GENERATE_MINIDUMPS {
+        return;
+    }
     // wait 500ms for the crash handler process to start up
     // if it's still not there just write panic info and no minidump
     let retry_frequency = Duration::from_millis(100);