diff --git a/packages/@uppy/companion/KUBERNETES.md b/packages/@uppy/companion/KUBERNETES.md
index b9c908bb3a..5b148a4780 100644
--- a/packages/@uppy/companion/KUBERNETES.md
+++ b/packages/@uppy/companion/KUBERNETES.md
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ data:
   COMPANION_DOMAINS: 'sub1.domain.com,sub2.domain.com,sub3.domain.com'
   COMPANION_PROTOCOL: 'YOUR SERVER PROTOCOL'
   COMPANION_STREAMING_UPLOAD: true
+  COMPANION_TUS_DEFERRED_UPLOAD_LENGTH: true
   COMPANION_REDIS_URL: redis://:superSecretPassword@uppy-redis.uppy.svc.cluster.local:6379
   COMPANION_SECRET: 'shh!Issa Secret!'
   COMPANION_PREAUTH_SECRET: 'another secret'
diff --git a/packages/@uppy/companion/env_example b/packages/@uppy/companion/env_example
index 08b3e0acf1..b166facda9 100644
--- a/packages/@uppy/companion/env_example
+++ b/packages/@uppy/companion/env_example
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ COMPANION_SELF_ENDPOINT=uppy.xxxx.com
 COMPANION_HIDE_METRICS=false
 COMPANION_HIDE_WELCOME=false
 COMPANION_STREAMING_UPLOAD=true
+COMPANION_TUS_DEFERRED_UPLOAD_LENGTH=true
 
 COMPANION_PROTOCOL=https
 COMPANION_DATADIR=/mnt/uppy-server-data
diff --git a/packages/@uppy/companion/src/server/Uploader.js b/packages/@uppy/companion/src/server/Uploader.js
index 9c2e3dd64b..9f8014549d 100644
--- a/packages/@uppy/companion/src/server/Uploader.js
+++ b/packages/@uppy/companion/src/server/Uploader.js
@@ -509,9 +509,7 @@ class Uploader {
       const tusOptions = {
         endpoint: this.options.endpoint,
         uploadUrl: this.options.uploadUrl,
-        uploadLengthDeferred: !isFileStream,
         retryDelays: [0, 1000, 3000, 5000],
-        uploadSize: isFileStream ? this.size : undefined,
         chunkSize,
         headers: headerSanitize(this.options.headers),
         addRequestId: true,
@@ -553,6 +551,16 @@ class Uploader {
         },
       }
 
+      if (this.options.companionOptions.tusDeferredUploadLength && !isFileStream) {
+        tusOptions.uploadLengthDeferred = true
+      } else {
+        if (!this.size) {
+          reject(new Error('tusDeferredUploadLength needs to be enabled if no file size is provided by the provider'))
+        }
+        tusOptions.uploadLengthDeferred = false
+        tusOptions.uploadSize = this.size
+      }
+
       this.tus = new tus.Upload(stream, tusOptions)
 
       this.tus.start()
diff --git a/packages/@uppy/companion/src/standalone/helper.js b/packages/@uppy/companion/src/standalone/helper.js
index 57494dadb8..4db99e03e7 100644
--- a/packages/@uppy/companion/src/standalone/helper.js
+++ b/packages/@uppy/companion/src/standalone/helper.js
@@ -183,6 +183,7 @@ const getConfigFromEnv = () => {
     // cookieDomain is kind of a hack to support distributed systems. This should be improved but we never got so far.
     cookieDomain: process.env.COMPANION_COOKIE_DOMAIN,
     streamingUpload: process.env.COMPANION_STREAMING_UPLOAD ? process.env.COMPANION_STREAMING_UPLOAD === 'true' : undefined,
+    tusDeferredUploadLength: process.env.COMPANION_TUS_DEFERRED_UPLOAD_LENGTH ? process.env.COMPANION_TUS_DEFERRED_UPLOAD_LENGTH === 'true' : true,
     maxFileSize: process.env.COMPANION_MAX_FILE_SIZE ? parseInt(process.env.COMPANION_MAX_FILE_SIZE, 10) : undefined,
     chunkSize: process.env.COMPANION_CHUNK_SIZE ? parseInt(process.env.COMPANION_CHUNK_SIZE, 10) : undefined,
     clientSocketConnectTimeout: process.env.COMPANION_CLIENT_SOCKET_CONNECT_TIMEOUT
diff --git a/packages/@uppy/companion/test/mockserver.js b/packages/@uppy/companion/test/mockserver.js
index 9ee1779e96..329e4d2d2f 100644
--- a/packages/@uppy/companion/test/mockserver.js
+++ b/packages/@uppy/companion/test/mockserver.js
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ const defaultEnv = {
   COMPANION_HIDE_WELCOME: 'false',
 
   COMPANION_STREAMING_UPLOAD: 'true',
+  COMPANION_TUS_DEFERRED_UPLOAD_LENGTH: 'true',
   COMPANION_ALLOW_LOCAL_URLS: 'false',
 
   COMPANION_PROTOCOL: 'http',