diff --git a/.changeset/silly-ligers-tan.md b/.changeset/silly-ligers-tan.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6b9097497d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/silly-ligers-tan.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/plugin-catalog-backend': patch
+---
+
+Adds the ability to disable catalog processing `catalog.processingInterval: false` in `app-config`
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/config.d.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/config.d.ts
index 8bab83d4b4..1ab107ef10 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/config.d.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/config.d.ts
@@ -164,7 +164,6 @@ export interface Config {
 
     /**
      * The interval at which the catalog should process its entities.
-     *
      * @remarks
      *
      * Example:
@@ -174,6 +173,13 @@ export interface Config {
      *   processingInterval: { minutes: 30 }
      * ```
      *
+     * or to disabled processing:
+     *
+     * ```yaml
+     * catalog:
+     *  processingInterval: false
+     * ```
+     *
      * Note that this is only a suggested minimum, and the actual interval may
      * be longer. Internally, the catalog will scale up this number by a small
      * factor and choose random numbers in that range to spread out the load. If
@@ -185,6 +191,6 @@ export interface Config {
      * systems that are queried by processors, such as version control systems
      * housing catalog-info files.
      */
-    processingInterval?: HumanDuration;
+    processingInterval?: HumanDuration | false;
   };
 }
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/CatalogBuilder.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/CatalogBuilder.ts
index c404bfaa0d..31ec40b887 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/CatalogBuilder.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/CatalogBuilder.ts
@@ -843,9 +843,18 @@ export class CatalogBuilder {
       });
     }
 
+    if (!Boolean(config.get('catalog.processingInterval'))) {
+      return () => {
+        throw new Error(
+          'catalog.processingInterval is set to false, processing is disabled.',
+        );
+      };
+    }
+
     const duration = readDurationFromConfig(config, {
       key: processingIntervalKey,
     });
+
     const seconds = Math.max(
       1,
       Math.round(durationToMilliseconds(duration) / 1000),
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/CatalogPlugin.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/CatalogPlugin.ts
index e36e4e1333..4da0b612cd 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/CatalogPlugin.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/CatalogPlugin.ts
@@ -301,10 +301,13 @@ export const catalogPlugin = createBackendPlugin({
 
         const { processingEngine, router } = await builder.build();
 
-        lifecycle.addStartupHook(async () => {
-          await processingEngine.start();
-        });
-        lifecycle.addShutdownHook(() => processingEngine.stop());
+        if (config.getOptional('catalog.processingInterval') ?? true) {
+          lifecycle.addStartupHook(async () => {
+            await processingEngine.start();
+          });
+          lifecycle.addShutdownHook(() => processingEngine.stop());
+        }
+
         httpRouter.use(router);
       },
     });