diff --git a/src/huggingface_hub/hf_api.py b/src/huggingface_hub/hf_api.py
index a7b30415ae..385728d8cf 100644
--- a/src/huggingface_hub/hf_api.py
+++ b/src/huggingface_hub/hf_api.py
@@ -398,6 +398,7 @@ def upload_file(
         repo_id: str,
         repo_type: Optional[str] = None,
         revision: Optional[str] = None,
+        identical_ok: bool = True,
     ) -> str:
         """
         Upload a local file (up to 5GB) to the given repo, tracking it with LFS if it's larger than 10MB
@@ -421,6 +422,10 @@ def upload_file(
             revision (``str``, Optional):
                 The git revision to commit from. Defaults to the :obj:`"main"` branch.
 
+            identical_ok (``bool``, defaults to ``True``):
+                When set to false, will raise an HTTPError when the file you're trying to upload already exists on the hub
+                and its content did not change.
+
         Returns:
             ``str``: The URL to visualize the uploaded file on the hub
 
@@ -501,7 +506,12 @@ def upload_file(
         else:
             r = requests.post(path, headers=headers, data=path_or_fileobj)
 
-        r.raise_for_status()
+        try:
+            r.raise_for_status()
+        except HTTPError as err:
+            if not (identical_ok and err.response.status_code == 409):
+                raise err
+
         d = r.json()
         return d["url"]
 
diff --git a/tests/test_hf_api.py b/tests/test_hf_api.py
index 3972a832c6..cb5c36032c 100644
--- a/tests/test_hf_api.py
+++ b/tests/test_hf_api.py
@@ -237,6 +237,42 @@ def test_upload_file_bytesio(self):
         finally:
             self._api.delete_repo(token=self._token, name=REPO_NAME)
 
+    def test_upload_file_conflict(self):
+        self._api.create_repo(token=self._token, name=REPO_NAME)
+        try:
+            filecontent = BytesIO(b"File content, but in bytes IO")
+            self._api.upload_file(
+                path_or_fileobj=filecontent,
+                path_in_repo="temp/new_file.md",
+                repo_id=f"{USER}/{REPO_NAME}",
+                token=self._token,
+                identical_ok=True,
+            )
+
+            # No exception raised when identical_ok is True
+            self._api.upload_file(
+                path_or_fileobj=filecontent,
+                path_in_repo="temp/new_file.md",
+                repo_id=f"{USER}/{REPO_NAME}",
+                token=self._token,
+                identical_ok=True,
+            )
+
+            with self.assertRaises(HTTPError) as err_ctx:
+                self._api.upload_file(
+                    path_or_fileobj=filecontent,
+                    path_in_repo="temp/new_file.md",
+                    repo_id=f"{USER}/{REPO_NAME}",
+                    token=self._token,
+                    identical_ok=False,
+                )
+                self.assertEqual(err_ctx.exception.response.status_code, 409)
+
+        except Exception as err:
+            self.fail(err)
+        finally:
+            self._api.delete_repo(token=self._token, name=REPO_NAME)
+
 
 class HfApiPublicTest(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_staging_list_models(self):