diff --git a/docs/guide/troubleshooting.rst b/docs/guide/troubleshooting.rst
index b85fb218..ae821105 100644
--- a/docs/guide/troubleshooting.rst
+++ b/docs/guide/troubleshooting.rst
@@ -73,3 +73,23 @@ If the necessary libraries for GPU acceleration are not installed and JAX detect
 
 This warning does not mean that the *molecular dynamics* simulation will fall back to using the CPU.
 The simulation will still use the computing platform specified in the settings.
+
+PYMBAR_DISABLE_JAX
+------------------
+
+Due to a suspected memory leak in the JAX acceleration code in ``pymbar`` we disable JAX acceleration by default.
+This memory leak may result in the simulation crashing, wasting compute time.
+The error message may look like this:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   LLVM compilation error: Cannot allocate memory
+   LLVM ERROR: Unable to allocate section memory!
+
+We have decided to disable JAX acceleration by default to prevent wasted compute.
+However, if you wish to use the JAX acceleration, you may set ``PYMBAR_DISABLE_JAX`` to ``TRUE`` (e.g. put ``export PYMBAR_DISABLE_JAX=FALSE`` in your submission script before running ``openfe quickrun``).
+For more information, see these issues on github:
+
+- https://github.com/choderalab/pymbar/issues/564
+- https://github.com/OpenFreeEnergy/openfe/issues/1534
+- https://github.com/OpenFreeEnergy/openfe/issues/1654
diff --git a/news/jax-warning.rst b/news/jax-warning.rst
index f50b3dbd..57aebff8 100644
--- a/news/jax-warning.rst
+++ b/news/jax-warning.rst
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 * Emit a clarifying log message when a user gets a warning from JAX (#1585).
   Fixes #1499.
 
+* Disable JAX acceleration by default, see https://docs.openfree.energy/en/latest/guide/troubleshooting.html#pymbar-disable-jax for more information (#1694).
+
 **Changed:**
 
 * <news item>
diff --git a/openfe/__init__.py b/openfe/__init__.py
index d56e7340..2ec7c009 100644
--- a/openfe/__init__.py
+++ b/openfe/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,22 @@
+# Before we do anything else, we want to disable JAX
+# acceleration by default but if a user has set
+# PYMBAR_DISABLE_JAX to some value, we want to keep
+# it
+
+import logging
+import os
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+if "PYMBAR_DISABLE_JAX" not in os.environ:
+    logger.warn(
+        "PYMBAR_DISABLE_JAX not set, setting to TRUE, see https://docs.openfree.energy/en/latest/guide/troubleshooting.html#pymbar-disable-jax for more details"
+    )
+
+# setdefault will only set PYMBAR_DISABLE_JAX if it is unset
+os.environ.setdefault("PYMBAR_DISABLE_JAX", "TRUE")
+
+
 # We need to do this first so that we can set up our
 # log control since some modules have warnings on import
 from openfe.utils import logging_control