diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 1b367d7ea..418804da3 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -13,6 +13,10 @@ doctest = false
 [profile.dev]
 debug = 0
 
+[features]
+console = ["console-subscriber"]
+default = []
+
 [workspace]
 members = [
     "crates/api",
@@ -54,7 +58,7 @@ tracing-actix-web = { version = "0.5.0-beta.8", default-features = false }
 tracing-error = "0.2.0"
 tracing-log = "0.1.2"
 tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.3.3", features = ["env-filter"] }
-console-subscriber = "0.1.0"
+console-subscriber = { version = "0.1.0", optional = true }
 strum = "0.23.0"
 url = { version = "2.2.2", features = ["serde"] }
 openssl = "0.10.38"
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index fc68ba382..7f19fa8e5 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ pub mod code_migrations;
 pub mod root_span_builder;
 pub mod scheduled_tasks;
 
+#[cfg(feature = "console")]
 use console_subscriber::ConsoleLayer;
 use lemmy_utils::LemmyError;
 use opentelemetry::{
@@ -30,6 +31,7 @@ pub fn init_tracing(opentelemetry_url: Option<&str>) -> Result<(), LemmyError> {
 
   let format_layer = tracing_subscriber::fmt::layer().with_filter(targets.clone());
 
+  #[cfg(feature = "console")]
   let console_layer = ConsoleLayer::builder()
     .with_default_env()
     .server_addr(([0, 0, 0, 0], 6669))
@@ -38,8 +40,10 @@ pub fn init_tracing(opentelemetry_url: Option<&str>) -> Result<(), LemmyError> {
 
   let subscriber = Registry::default()
     .with(format_layer)
-    .with(ErrorLayer::default())
-    .with(console_layer);
+    .with(ErrorLayer::default());
+
+  #[cfg(feature = "console")]
+  let subscriber = subscriber.with(console_layer);
 
   if let Some(url) = opentelemetry_url {
     let tracer = opentelemetry_otlp::new_pipeline()