diff --git a/tritium-caffeine/build.gradle b/tritium-caffeine/build.gradle
index 36ab16622..dd6dd5751 100644
--- a/tritium-caffeine/build.gradle
+++ b/tritium-caffeine/build.gradle
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ dependencies {
     implementation 'io.dropwizard.metrics:metrics-core'
     implementation 'org.checkerframework:checker-qual'
 
+    testImplementation 'com.palantir.safe-logging:preconditions-assertj'
     testImplementation 'org.assertj:assertj-core'
     testImplementation 'org.awaitility:awaitility'
     testImplementation 'org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter'
diff --git a/tritium-caffeine/src/main/java/com/palantir/tritium/metrics/caffeine/CacheStats.java b/tritium-caffeine/src/main/java/com/palantir/tritium/metrics/caffeine/CacheStats.java
index cf5e057ba..040e47143 100644
--- a/tritium-caffeine/src/main/java/com/palantir/tritium/metrics/caffeine/CacheStats.java
+++ b/tritium-caffeine/src/main/java/com/palantir/tritium/metrics/caffeine/CacheStats.java
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
 
 package com.palantir.tritium.metrics.caffeine;
 
+import static com.palantir.logsafe.Preconditions.checkState;
+
 import com.codahale.metrics.Counting;
 import com.codahale.metrics.Meter;
 import com.codahale.metrics.Timer;
@@ -86,6 +88,11 @@ public static CacheStats of(TaggedMetricRegistry taggedMetricRegistry, @Safe Str
     public <K, V, C extends Cache<K, V>> C register(Function<CacheStats, C> cacheFactory) {
         C cache = cacheFactory.apply(this);
 
+        checkState(
+                cache.policy().isRecordingStats(),
+                "Registered cache is not recording stats. Registered caches must enabled stats recording with "
+                        + ".recordStats(stats).");
+
         metrics.estimatedSize().cache(name).build(cache::estimatedSize);
         metrics.weightedSize().cache(name).build(() -> cache.policy()
                 .eviction()
diff --git a/tritium-caffeine/src/test/java/com/palantir/tritium/metrics/caffeine/CaffeineCacheStatsTest.java b/tritium-caffeine/src/test/java/com/palantir/tritium/metrics/caffeine/CaffeineCacheStatsTest.java
index db67d2029..75e652261 100644
--- a/tritium-caffeine/src/test/java/com/palantir/tritium/metrics/caffeine/CaffeineCacheStatsTest.java
+++ b/tritium-caffeine/src/test/java/com/palantir/tritium/metrics/caffeine/CaffeineCacheStatsTest.java
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 package com.palantir.tritium.metrics.caffeine;
 
+import static com.palantir.logsafe.testing.Assertions.assertThatLoggableExceptionThrownBy;
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
 import static org.assertj.core.api.InstanceOfAssertFactories.collection;
 import static org.assertj.core.api.InstanceOfAssertFactories.type;
@@ -33,6 +34,7 @@
 import com.github.benmanes.caffeine.cache.LoadingCache;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableSetMultimap;
 import com.google.common.collect.Multimaps;
+import com.palantir.logsafe.exceptions.SafeIllegalStateException;
 import com.palantir.tritium.metrics.registry.DefaultTaggedMetricRegistry;
 import com.palantir.tritium.metrics.registry.MetricName;
 import com.palantir.tritium.metrics.registry.TaggedMetricRegistry;
@@ -336,6 +338,18 @@ void registerLoadingTaggedMetrics() {
                 .isNull();
     }
 
+    @Test
+    void registerWithoutStatsRecording() {
+        CacheStats cacheStats = CacheStats.of(taggedMetricRegistry, "test");
+
+        assertThatLoggableExceptionThrownBy(() ->
+                        cacheStats.register(_stats -> Caffeine.newBuilder().build()))
+                .isInstanceOf(SafeIllegalStateException.class)
+                .hasLogMessage("Registered cache is not recording stats. Registered caches must enabled stats "
+                        + "recording with .recordStats(stats).")
+                .hasNoArgs();
+    }
+
     static AbstractObjectAssert<?, Object> assertGauge(TaggedMetricRegistry taggedMetricRegistry, String name) {
         return assertMetric(taggedMetricRegistry, Gauge.class, name).extracting(Gauge::getValue);
     }
diff --git a/versions.lock b/versions.lock
index c4477d1b0..83df16161 100644
--- a/versions.lock
+++ b/versions.lock
@@ -15,8 +15,8 @@ com.palantir.nylon:nylon-threads:0.4.0 (1 constraints: 0605f735)
 com.palantir.safe-logging:logger:3.7.0 (3 constraints: f31f6c22)
 com.palantir.safe-logging:logger-slf4j:3.7.0 (1 constraints: 050e6842)
 com.palantir.safe-logging:logger-spi:3.7.0 (2 constraints: 191ea27b)
-com.palantir.safe-logging:preconditions:3.7.0 (3 constraints: f31f6c22)
-com.palantir.safe-logging:safe-logging:3.7.0 (6 constraints: 794ed480)
+com.palantir.safe-logging:preconditions:3.7.0 (4 constraints: 2134beac)
+com.palantir.safe-logging:safe-logging:3.7.0 (7 constraints: a7621b39)
 com.palantir.tracing:tracing:6.18.0 (1 constraints: 41055f3b)
 com.palantir.tracing:tracing-api:6.18.0 (2 constraints: 17121d19)
 com.squareup:javapoet:1.13.0 (3 constraints: 9e27444d)
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ com.google.auto.value:auto-value:1.10 (1 constraints: e711f8e8)
 com.google.auto.value:auto-value-annotations:1.8.1 (1 constraints: 620a29b9)
 com.google.testing.compile:compile-testing:0.21.0 (1 constraints: 35052a3b)
 com.google.truth:truth:1.1.3 (1 constraints: 18120efb)
+com.palantir.safe-logging:preconditions-assertj:3.7.0 (1 constraints: 0c050f36)
 com.squareup.okhttp3:okhttp:4.12.0 (1 constraints: 3905413b)
 com.squareup.okio:okio:3.6.0 (1 constraints: 530c38fd)
 com.squareup.okio:okio-jvm:3.6.0 (1 constraints: 500ad3b9)
@@ -52,7 +53,7 @@ net.jqwik:jqwik-web:1.8.4 (1 constraints: a007fe6c)
 net.sf.jopt-simple:jopt-simple:5.0.4 (1 constraints: be0ad6cc)
 org.apache.commons:commons-math3:3.6.1 (1 constraints: bf0adbcc)
 org.apiguardian:apiguardian-api:1.1.2 (10 constraints: 4f819858)
-org.assertj:assertj-core:3.25.3 (1 constraints: 3f054b3b)
+org.assertj:assertj-core:3.25.3 (2 constraints: 9e19a0df)
 org.awaitility:awaitility:4.2.1 (1 constraints: 09050636)
 org.hamcrest:hamcrest:2.1 (1 constraints: 6f0b2cce)
 org.hamcrest:hamcrest-core:1.3 (1 constraints: cc05fe3f)