diff --git a/docs/features/tool_calling.md b/docs/features/tool_calling.md
index ce74683a1..37d502ef9 100644
--- a/docs/features/tool_calling.md
+++ b/docs/features/tool_calling.md
@@ -103,7 +103,8 @@ When tool_choice='required' is set, the model is guaranteed to generate one or m
 
 vLLM supports the `tool_choice='none'` option in the chat completion API. When this option is set, the model will not generate any tool calls and will respond with regular text content only, even if tools are defined in the request.
 
-However, when `tool_choice='none'` is specified, vLLM includes tool definitions from the prompt.
+!!! note
+    When tools are specified in the request, vLLM includes tool definitions in the prompt by default, regardless of the `tool_choice` setting. To exclude tool definitions when `tool_choice='none'`, use the `--exclude-tools-when-tool-choice-none` option.
 
 ## Automatic Function Calling
 
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py
index d4135519a..89e5e7ed8 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py
@@ -1646,6 +1646,8 @@ async def init_app_state(
         chat_template_content_format=args.chat_template_content_format,
         return_tokens_as_token_ids=args.return_tokens_as_token_ids,
         enable_auto_tools=args.enable_auto_tool_choice,
+        exclude_tools_when_tool_choice_none=args.
+        exclude_tools_when_tool_choice_none,
         tool_parser=args.tool_call_parser,
         reasoning_parser=args.reasoning_parser,
         enable_prompt_tokens_details=args.enable_prompt_tokens_details,
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/cli_args.py b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/cli_args.py
index 3025a6263..7f60fe713 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/cli_args.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/cli_args.py
@@ -133,6 +133,9 @@ schema. Example: `[{"type": "text", "text": "Hello world!"}]`"""
     """If specified, API server will add X-Request-Id header to responses. 
     Caution: this hurts performance at high QPS."""
     enable_auto_tool_choice: bool = False
+    """If specified, exclude tool definitions in prompts when 
+    tool_choice='none'."""
+    exclude_tools_when_tool_choice_none: bool = False
     """Enable auto tool choice for supported models. Use `--tool-call-parser` 
     to specify which parser to use."""
     tool_call_parser: Optional[str] = None
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/serving_chat.py b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/serving_chat.py
index 33d807434..832a3d501 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/serving_chat.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/serving_chat.py
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ class OpenAIServingChat(OpenAIServing):
         return_tokens_as_token_ids: bool = False,
         reasoning_parser: str = "",
         enable_auto_tools: bool = False,
+        exclude_tools_when_tool_choice_none: bool = False,
         tool_parser: Optional[str] = None,
         enable_prompt_tokens_details: bool = False,
         enable_force_include_usage: bool = False,
@@ -111,6 +112,8 @@ class OpenAIServingChat(OpenAIServing):
                 raise TypeError("Error: --enable-auto-tool-choice requires "
                                 f"tool_parser:'{tool_parser}' which has not "
                                 "been registered") from e
+        self.exclude_tools_when_tool_choice_none = (
+            exclude_tools_when_tool_choice_none)
 
         self.enable_prompt_tokens_details = enable_prompt_tokens_details
         self.enable_force_include_usage = enable_force_include_usage
@@ -174,7 +177,9 @@ class OpenAIServingChat(OpenAIServing):
                     "--enable-auto-tool-choice and --tool-call-parser to be set"
                 )
 
-            if request.tools is None:
+            if (request.tools is None
+                    or (request.tool_choice == "none"
+                        and self.exclude_tools_when_tool_choice_none)):
                 tool_dicts = None
             else:
                 tool_dicts = [tool.model_dump() for tool in request.tools]