diff --git a/drivers/nvmem/core.c b/drivers/nvmem/core.c
index 398ea7f54826..78aa06a578d0 100644
--- a/drivers/nvmem/core.c
+++ b/drivers/nvmem/core.c
@@ -970,7 +970,8 @@ static int __nvmem_cell_read(struct nvmem_device *nvmem,
 	if (cell->bit_offset || cell->nbits)
 		nvmem_shift_read_buffer_in_place(cell, buf);
 
-	*len = cell->bytes;
+	if (len)
+		*len = cell->bytes;
 
 	return 0;
 }
@@ -979,7 +980,8 @@ static int __nvmem_cell_read(struct nvmem_device *nvmem,
  * nvmem_cell_read() - Read a given nvmem cell
  *
  * @cell: nvmem cell to be read.
- * @len: pointer to length of cell which will be populated on successful read.
+ * @len: pointer to length of cell which will be populated on successful read;
+ *	 can be NULL.
  *
  * Return: ERR_PTR() on error or a valid pointer to a buffer on success. The
  * buffer should be freed by the consumer with a kfree().