diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 6d4ed67020..55f3d594db 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ option(LLAMA_BUILD_TOOLS    "llama: build tools"          ${LLAMA_STANDALONE})
 option(LLAMA_BUILD_EXAMPLES "llama: build examples"       ${LLAMA_STANDALONE})
 option(LLAMA_BUILD_SERVER   "llama: build server example" ${LLAMA_STANDALONE})
 option(LLAMA_TOOLS_INSTALL  "llama: install tools"        ${LLAMA_TOOLS_INSTALL_DEFAULT})
+option(LLAMA_TESTS_INSTALL  "llama: install tests"        ON)
 
 # 3rd party libs
 option(LLAMA_HTTPLIB    "llama: httplib for downloading functionality" ON)
diff --git a/tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
index c9436c5995..350bffc315 100644
--- a/tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@ function(llama_build source)
 
     add_executable(${TEST_TARGET} ${TEST_SOURCES})
     target_link_libraries(${TEST_TARGET} PRIVATE common)
-    install(TARGETS ${TEST_TARGET} RUNTIME)
+    if (LLAMA_TESTS_INSTALL)
+        install(TARGETS ${TEST_TARGET} RUNTIME)
+    endif()
 endfunction()
 
 function(llama_test target)
@@ -100,7 +102,9 @@ function(llama_build_and_test source)
     endif()
 
     add_executable(${TEST_TARGET} ${TEST_SOURCES})
-    install(TARGETS ${TEST_TARGET} RUNTIME)
+    if (LLAMA_TESTS_INSTALL)
+        install(TARGETS ${TEST_TARGET} RUNTIME)
+    endif()
     target_link_libraries(${TEST_TARGET} PRIVATE common)
 
     add_test(