diff --git a/toolchain/driver/compile_driver.cpp b/toolchain/driver/compile_driver.cpp
index d87eac7eaf36..fccb6d6ab22e 100644
--- a/toolchain/driver/compile_driver.cpp
+++ b/toolchain/driver/compile_driver.cpp
@@ -191,6 +191,8 @@ auto CompilationUnit::RunLower() -> void {
     options.vlog_stream = vlog_stream_;
     options.opt_level = options_->opt_level;
     options.mangle_string_fingerprint = options_->mangle_string_fingerprint;
+    // Only generate inst names if the llvm IR needs to be human-readable.
+    options.generate_inst_names = options_->dump_llvm_ir;
     module_ = Lower::LowerToLLVM(*llvm_context_, driver_env_->fs,
                                  cache_->tree_and_subtrees_getters(), *sem_ir_,
                                  total_ir_count_, options);
diff --git a/toolchain/lower/lower.cpp b/toolchain/lower/lower.cpp
index 83d24b2c2243..57062b92a9f1 100644
--- a/toolchain/lower/lower.cpp
+++ b/toolchain/lower/lower.cpp
@@ -27,10 +27,13 @@ auto LowerToLLVM(
       sem_ir.filename(), total_ir_count, options.opt_level,
       options.mangle_string_fingerprint, options.vlog_stream);
 
-  // TODO: Consider disabling instruction naming by default if we're not
-  // producing textual LLVM IR.
-  SemIR::InstNamer inst_namer(&sem_ir, total_ir_count);
-  context.GetFileContext(&sem_ir, &inst_namer).LowerDefinitions();
+  std::optional<SemIR::InstNamer> inst_namer;
+  if (options.generate_inst_names) {
+    inst_namer.emplace(&sem_ir, total_ir_count);
+  }
+  context
+      .GetFileContext(&sem_ir, inst_namer.has_value() ? &*inst_namer : nullptr)
+      .LowerDefinitions();
 
   std::unique_ptr<llvm::Module> module = std::move(context).Finalize();
 
diff --git a/toolchain/lower/options.h b/toolchain/lower/options.h
index e5097a1db356..914067625326 100644
--- a/toolchain/lower/options.h
+++ b/toolchain/lower/options.h
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ struct LowerToLLVMOptions {
 
   // Whether to use the string form of the fingerprint for mangling.
   bool mangle_string_fingerprint = false;
+
+  // Whether to generate names for LLVM instructions.
+  bool generate_inst_names = false;
 };
 
 }  // namespace Carbon::Lower