diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 3123dbea2..0d81a57fd 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ option(GTSAM_WITH_TBB                    "Use Intel Threaded Building Blocks (TB
 option(GTSAM_WITH_EIGEN_MKL              "Eigen will use Intel MKL if available" ON)
 option(GTSAM_WITH_EIGEN_MKL_OPENMP       "Eigen, when using Intel MKL, will also use OpenMP for multithreading if available" ON)
 option(GTSAM_THROW_CHEIRALITY_EXCEPTION "Throw exception when a triangulated point is behind a camera" ON)
-option(GTSAM_BUILD_PYTHON                "Enable/Disable building & installation of Python module" ON)
+option(GTSAM_BUILD_PYTHON                "Enable/Disable building & installation of Python module" OFF)
 option(GTSAM_ALLOW_DEPRECATED_SINCE_V4   "Allow use of methods/functions deprecated in GTSAM 4" ON)
 
 # Options relating to MATLAB wrapper