diff --git a/docs/UsingLibcxx.rst b/docs/UsingLibcxx.rst
index fe32f5e6b..183664655 100644
--- a/docs/UsingLibcxx.rst
+++ b/docs/UsingLibcxx.rst
@@ -146,6 +146,11 @@ thread safety annotations.
   build of libc++ which does not export any symbols, which can be useful when
   building statically for inclusion into another library.
 
+**_LIBCPP_DISABLE_EXTERN_TEMPLATE**:
+  This macro is used to disable extern template declarations in the libc++
+  headers. The intended use case is for clients who wish to use the libc++
+  headers without taking a dependency on the libc++ library itself.
+
 **_LIBCPP_ENABLE_TUPLE_IMPLICIT_REDUCED_ARITY_EXTENSION**:
   This macro is used to re-enable an extension in `std::tuple` which allowed
   it to be implicitly constructed from fewer initializers than contained
diff --git a/include/__config b/include/__config
index 117d2d61f..bca85b6e3 100644
--- a/include/__config
+++ b/include/__config
@@ -856,6 +856,11 @@ template <unsigned> struct __static_assert_check {};
 # endif
 #endif
 
+#ifdef _LIBCPP_DISABLE_EXTERN_TEMPLATE
+#define _LIBCPP_EXTERN_TEMPLATE(...)
+#define _LIBCPP_EXTERN_TEMPLATE2(...)
+#endif
+
 #ifndef _LIBCPP_EXTERN_TEMPLATE
 #define _LIBCPP_EXTERN_TEMPLATE(...) extern template __VA_ARGS__;
 #endif