diff --git a/gfx/wgpu_bindings/src/server.rs b/gfx/wgpu_bindings/src/server.rs
index 7f917b593a3a..663e4c2b3413 100644
--- a/gfx/wgpu_bindings/src/server.rs
+++ b/gfx/wgpu_bindings/src/server.rs
@@ -89,12 +89,18 @@ pub extern "C" fn wgpu_server_new(
         );
         wgc::instance::parse_backends_from_comma_list(&backends_pref)
     };
+
+    let mut instance_flags = wgt::InstanceFlags::from_build_config().with_env();
+    if !static_prefs::pref!("dom.webgpu.hal-labels") {
+        instance_flags.insert(wgt::InstanceFlags::DISCARD_HAL_LABELS);
+    }
+
     let global = wgc::global::Global::new(
         "wgpu",
         factory,
         wgt::InstanceDescriptor {
             backends,
-            flags: wgt::InstanceFlags::from_build_config().with_env(),
+            flags: instance_flags,
             dx12_shader_compiler: wgt::Dx12Compiler::Fxc,
             gles_minor_version: wgt::Gles3MinorVersion::Automatic,
         },
diff --git a/modules/libpref/init/StaticPrefList.yaml b/modules/libpref/init/StaticPrefList.yaml
index fe680d47f12c..73e2d4942537 100644
--- a/modules/libpref/init/StaticPrefList.yaml
+++ b/modules/libpref/init/StaticPrefList.yaml
@@ -4571,6 +4571,15 @@
   mirror: always
   rust: true
 
+# Whether to pass labels to the hardware abstraction layer. This is only useful when
+# inspecting a WebGPU workload in a GPU debugging tool like renderdoc. Enabling it
+# exposes poorly tested driver API surfaces so it should not be enabled by default.
+- name: dom.webgpu.hal-labels
+  type: bool
+  value: false
+  mirror: once
+  rust: true
+
 # Is support for HTMLInputElement.webkitEntries enabled?
 - name: dom.webkitBlink.filesystem.enabled
   type: bool