diff --git a/include/hw/i386/pc.h b/include/hw/i386/pc.h
index 7fb97b08a2..09c2dd411b 100644
--- a/include/hw/i386/pc.h
+++ b/include/hw/i386/pc.h
@@ -235,6 +235,10 @@ int e820_add_entry(uint64_t, uint64_t, uint32_t);
             .driver   = "virtio-net-pci",\
             .property = "any_layout",\
             .value    = "off",\
+        },{\
+            .driver = TYPE_X86_CPU,\
+            .property = "pmu",\
+            .value = "on",\
         }
 
 #define PC_COMPAT_1_4 \
diff --git a/target-i386/cpu-qom.h b/target-i386/cpu-qom.h
index 60d2b5d772..53b4c3439b 100644
--- a/target-i386/cpu-qom.h
+++ b/target-i386/cpu-qom.h
@@ -68,6 +68,13 @@ typedef struct X86CPU {
 
     /* Features that were filtered out because of missing host capabilities */
     uint32_t filtered_features[FEATURE_WORDS];
+
+    /* Enable PMU CPUID bits. This can't be enabled by default yet because
+     * it doesn't have ABI stability guarantees, as it passes all PMU CPUID
+     * bits returned by GET_SUPPORTED_CPUID (that depend on host CPU and kernel
+     * capabilities) directly to the guest.
+     */
+    bool enable_pmu;
 } X86CPU;
 
 static inline X86CPU *x86_env_get_cpu(CPUX86State *env)
diff --git a/target-i386/cpu.c b/target-i386/cpu.c
index 80143bf87a..71ab91531d 100644
--- a/target-i386/cpu.c
+++ b/target-i386/cpu.c
@@ -1479,6 +1479,7 @@ static int cpu_x86_find_by_name(X86CPU *cpu, x86_def_t *x86_cpu_def,
                                 const char *name)
 {
     x86_def_t *def;
+    Error *err = NULL;
     int i;
 
     if (name == NULL) {
@@ -1486,6 +1487,8 @@ static int cpu_x86_find_by_name(X86CPU *cpu, x86_def_t *x86_cpu_def,
     }
     if (kvm_enabled() && strcmp(name, "host") == 0) {
         kvm_cpu_fill_host(x86_cpu_def);
+        object_property_set_bool(OBJECT(cpu), true, "pmu", &err);
+        assert_no_error(err);
         return 0;
     }
 
@@ -2017,7 +2020,7 @@ void cpu_x86_cpuid(CPUX86State *env, uint32_t index, uint32_t count,
         break;
     case 0xA:
         /* Architectural Performance Monitoring Leaf */
-        if (kvm_enabled()) {
+        if (kvm_enabled() && cpu->enable_pmu) {
             KVMState *s = cs->kvm_state;
 
             *eax = kvm_arch_get_supported_cpuid(s, 0xA, count, R_EAX);
@@ -2523,6 +2526,11 @@ static void x86_cpu_synchronize_from_tb(CPUState *cs, TranslationBlock *tb)
     cpu->env.eip = tb->pc - tb->cs_base;
 }
 
+static Property x86_cpu_properties[] = {
+    DEFINE_PROP_BOOL("pmu", X86CPU, enable_pmu, false),
+    DEFINE_PROP_END_OF_LIST()
+};
+
 static void x86_cpu_common_class_init(ObjectClass *oc, void *data)
 {
     X86CPUClass *xcc = X86_CPU_CLASS(oc);
@@ -2532,6 +2540,7 @@ static void x86_cpu_common_class_init(ObjectClass *oc, void *data)
     xcc->parent_realize = dc->realize;
     dc->realize = x86_cpu_realizefn;
     dc->bus_type = TYPE_ICC_BUS;
+    dc->props = x86_cpu_properties;
 
     xcc->parent_reset = cc->reset;
     cc->reset = x86_cpu_reset;