diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 2091f73f85a..aadd71e481d 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ if (LEGACY_BUILD)
     option(DISABLE_INTERNAL_IMDSV1_CALLS "Disables IMDSv1 internal client calls" OFF)
     option(BUILD_BENCHMARKS "Enables building the benchmark executable" OFF)
     option(BUILD_OPTEL "Enables building the open telemetry implementation of tracing" OFF)
+    option(AWS_SDK_WARNINGS_ARE_ERRORS "Compiler warning is treated as an error. Try turning this off when observing errors on a new or uncommon compiler" ON)
 
     set(AWS_USER_AGENT_CUSTOMIZATION "" CACHE STRING "User agent extension")
     set(AWS_TEST_REGION "US_EAST_1" CACHE STRING "Region to target integration tests against")
diff --git a/cmake/compiler_settings.cmake b/cmake/compiler_settings.cmake
index a7689dc5955..c0c19e5b8da 100644
--- a/cmake/compiler_settings.cmake
+++ b/cmake/compiler_settings.cmake
@@ -53,7 +53,10 @@ macro(set_gcc_flags)
 endmacro()
 
 macro(set_gcc_warnings)
-    list(APPEND AWS_COMPILER_WARNINGS "-Wall" "-Werror" "-pedantic" "-Wextra")
+    list(APPEND AWS_COMPILER_WARNINGS "-Wall" "-pedantic" "-Wextra")
+    if(AWS_SDK_WARNINGS_ARE_ERRORS)
+        list(APPEND AWS_COMPILER_WARNINGS "-Werror")
+    endif ()
     if(COMPILER_CLANG)
         if(PLATFORM_ANDROID)
             # when using clang with libc and API lower than 21 we need to include Android support headers and ignore the gnu-include-next warning.
@@ -153,7 +156,7 @@ macro(set_msvc_warnings)
         endif()
 
         # warnings as errors, max warning level (4)
-        if(NOT CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS MATCHES "/WX")
+        if(NOT CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS MATCHES "/WX" AND AWS_SDK_WARNINGS_ARE_ERRORS)
             set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} /WX")
         endif()