diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 7c6821c9..33e2f287 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # httr2 (development version)
 
+* `req_cache()` now defaults the `debug` argument to the `httr2_cache_debug` option to make it easier to debug caching buried in other people's code (#486).
 * `req_oauth_password()` now only asks for your password once (#498).
 * `req_url_query()` now allows you to opt out of escaping for multi-value parameters (#404).
 * `req_perform_parallel()` now works correctly with `req_cache()` (#447).
diff --git a/R/req-cache.R b/R/req-cache.R
index d63aa643..b42828c2 100644
--- a/R/req-cache.R
+++ b/R/req-cache.R
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@
 req_cache <- function(req,
                       path,
                       use_on_error = FALSE,
-                      debug = FALSE,
+                      debug = getOption("httr2_cache_debug", FALSE),
                       max_age = Inf,
                       max_n = Inf,
                       max_size = 1024^3) {
diff --git a/man/req_cache.Rd b/man/req_cache.Rd
index 8c63549a..c15875ce 100644
--- a/man/req_cache.Rd
+++ b/man/req_cache.Rd
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ req_cache(
   req,
   path,
   use_on_error = FALSE,
-  debug = FALSE,
+  debug = getOption("httr2_cache_debug", FALSE),
   max_age = Inf,
   max_n = Inf,
   max_size = 1024^3