diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5f1d11f8f6..bff8e5e25b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 ### Fixes
 
 - **Update README.md**: readme-only changes; added a link to Unstructured Pipelines to the README. No library behavior changes.
+- **`UNSTRUCTURED_INCLUDE_DEBUG_METADATA` now parses its env var value as a boolean**: previously `os.getenv("UNSTRUCTURED_INCLUDE_DEBUG_METADATA", False)` treated any explicitly-set string value (including `"false"` or `"0"`) as truthy, so setting the variable to explicitly disable debug metadata actually enabled it. Now parses the value the same way `ENVConfig._get_bool` already does elsewhere in the codebase (`"true"`/`"1"`/`"t"`, case-insensitive, is `True`; everything else, including unset, is `False`).
 
 ## 0.25.0
 
diff --git a/test_unstructured/partition/utils/test_config.py b/test_unstructured/partition/utils/test_config.py
index 48f57a5395..e8b15f7a3f 100644
--- a/test_unstructured/partition/utils/test_config.py
+++ b/test_unstructured/partition/utils/test_config.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import importlib
 import shutil
 import tempfile
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -5,6 +6,41 @@
 import pytest
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("env_value", "expected"),
+    [
+        ("true", True),
+        ("1", True),
+        ("t", True),
+        ("false", False),
+        ("0", False),
+        ("no", False),
+    ],
+)
+def test_include_debug_metadata_parses_bool_string(monkeypatch, env_value, expected):
+    from unstructured.partition.utils import constants
+
+    monkeypatch.setenv("UNSTRUCTURED_INCLUDE_DEBUG_METADATA", env_value)
+    try:
+        importlib.reload(constants)
+        assert constants.UNSTRUCTURED_INCLUDE_DEBUG_METADATA is expected
+    finally:
+        monkeypatch.undo()
+        importlib.reload(constants)
+
+
+def test_include_debug_metadata_defaults_to_false_when_unset(monkeypatch):
+    from unstructured.partition.utils import constants
+
+    monkeypatch.delenv("UNSTRUCTURED_INCLUDE_DEBUG_METADATA", raising=False)
+    try:
+        importlib.reload(constants)
+        assert constants.UNSTRUCTURED_INCLUDE_DEBUG_METADATA is False
+    finally:
+        monkeypatch.undo()
+        importlib.reload(constants)
+
+
 def test_default_config():
     from unstructured.partition.utils.config import env_config
 
diff --git a/unstructured/partition/utils/constants.py b/unstructured/partition/utils/constants.py
index c5cdcfea47..0e9f7dc614 100644
--- a/unstructured/partition/utils/constants.py
+++ b/unstructured/partition/utils/constants.py
@@ -50,7 +50,13 @@ class PartitionStrategy:
     "unstructured.partition.utils.speech_to_text.whisper_stt",
 ).split(",")
 
-UNSTRUCTURED_INCLUDE_DEBUG_METADATA = os.getenv("UNSTRUCTURED_INCLUDE_DEBUG_METADATA", False)
+UNSTRUCTURED_INCLUDE_DEBUG_METADATA = os.getenv(
+    "UNSTRUCTURED_INCLUDE_DEBUG_METADATA", ""
+).lower() in (
+    "true",
+    "1",
+    "t",
+)
 
 # this field is defined by unstructured_pytesseract
 TESSERACT_TEXT_HEIGHT = "height"