diff --git a/hostapd/Makefile b/hostapd/Makefile
index e9d48e98e..58e83fe32 100644
--- a/hostapd/Makefile
+++ b/hostapd/Makefile
@@ -502,6 +502,10 @@ ifdef NEED_BASE64
 OBJS += ../src/utils/base64.o
 endif
 
+ifdef CONFIG_NO_STDOUT_DEBUG
+CFLAGS += -DCONFIG_NO_STDOUT_DEBUG
+endif
+
 ALL=hostapd hostapd_cli
 
 all: verify_config $(ALL)
diff --git a/hostapd/defconfig b/hostapd/defconfig
index 8e31a0d0d..659434418 100644
--- a/hostapd/defconfig
+++ b/hostapd/defconfig
@@ -135,3 +135,8 @@ CONFIG_IPV6=y
 
 # IEEE 802.11n (High Throughput) support
 #CONFIG_IEEE80211N=y
+
+# Remove debugging code that is printing out debug messages to stdout.
+# This can be used to reduce the size of the hostapd considerably if debugging
+# code is not needed.
+#CONFIG_NO_STDOUT_DEBUG=y