diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b1c1fd19..35ff89f2 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 
 - Weight upload support for yolo26-sem semantic segmentation models via
   `version.deploy()` and `workspace.deploy_model()`
+- `ROBOFLOW_DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING` environment variable to preserve custom
+  class ordering during YOLO model deployment (opt-in, defaults to false)
 
 ## 1.3.9
 
diff --git a/roboflow/config.py b/roboflow/config.py
index 0d569e95..e975d38c 100644
--- a/roboflow/config.py
+++ b/roboflow/config.py
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ def get_conditional_configuration_variable(key, default):
 
 RF_WORKSPACES = get_conditional_configuration_variable("workspaces", default={})
 TQDM_DISABLE = os.getenv("TQDM_DISABLE", None)
+DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING = os.getenv("ROBOFLOW_DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING", "false").lower() == "true"
 
 
 def load_roboflow_api_key(workspace_url=None):
diff --git a/roboflow/util/model_processor.py b/roboflow/util/model_processor.py
index 0022c11a..8adcb5f4 100644
--- a/roboflow/util/model_processor.py
+++ b/roboflow/util/model_processor.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import yaml
 
 from roboflow.config import (
+    DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING,
     TASK_CLS,
     TASK_DET,
     TASK_OBB,
@@ -224,7 +225,11 @@ def _process_yolo(model_type: str, model_path: str, filename: str) -> tuple[str,
         class_names = []
         for i, val in enumerate(model_instance.names):
             class_names.append((val, model_instance.names[val]))
-        class_names.sort(key=lambda x: x[0])
+        # NOTE: When DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING is enabled, users are responsible for ensuring
+        # their model's names dict has properly ordered/sequential keys. Non-sequential keys
+        # may result in incorrect class-to-index mappings.
+        if not DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING:
+            class_names.sort(key=lambda x: x[0])
         class_names = [x[1] for x in class_names]
 
     if (
diff --git a/tests/util/test_class_sorting.py b/tests/util/test_class_sorting.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ad4e930f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/util/test_class_sorting.py
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+import importlib.util
+import os
+import unittest
+from unittest.mock import patch
+
+# Get the path to config.py directly
+config_path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))), "roboflow", "config.py")
+
+
+class TestClassSorting(unittest.TestCase):
+    """Test DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING configuration for class ordering."""
+
+    def test_disable_class_sorting_default_value(self):
+        """Test that DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING defaults to False."""
+        # Load config module directly without triggering __init__.py
+        spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("config", config_path)
+        config = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+        spec.loader.exec_module(config)
+
+        self.assertFalse(config.DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING)
+
+    def test_disable_class_sorting_env_var_true(self):
+        """Test that ROBOFLOW_DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING=true sets config to True."""
+        with patch.dict(os.environ, {"ROBOFLOW_DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING": "true"}):
+            # Reload config to pick up env var
+            spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("config", config_path)
+            config = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+            spec.loader.exec_module(config)
+
+            # After reload, should be True
+            self.assertTrue(config.DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING)
+
+    def test_disable_class_sorting_env_var_false(self):
+        """Test that ROBOFLOW_DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING=false keeps config as False."""
+        with patch.dict(os.environ, {"ROBOFLOW_DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING": "false"}):
+            spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("config", config_path)
+            config = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+            spec.loader.exec_module(config)
+
+            self.assertFalse(config.DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING)
+
+    def test_disable_class_sorting_env_var_case_insensitive(self):
+        """Test that env var is case-insensitive."""
+        for value in ["True", "TRUE", "tRuE"]:
+            with patch.dict(os.environ, {"ROBOFLOW_DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING": value}):
+                spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("config", config_path)
+                config = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+                spec.loader.exec_module(config)
+
+                self.assertTrue(config.DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING)
+
+    def test_config_import(self):
+        """Test that DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING exists and is a boolean."""
+        spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("config", config_path)
+        config = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+        spec.loader.exec_module(config)
+
+        config_value = config.DISABLE_CLASS_SORTING
+        self.assertIsNotNone(config_value)
+        self.assertIsInstance(config_value, bool)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()