diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 76ab93a231..a26c7da35d 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -134,6 +134,10 @@ if(CONFIG_COMPILER_OPTIMIZATION_ASSERTIONS_DISABLE)
     list(APPEND compile_definitions "-DNDEBUG")
 endif()
 
+if(CONFIG_COMPILER_NO_MERGE_CONSTANTS)
+    list(APPEND compile_options "-fno-merge-constants")
+endif()
+
 if(CONFIG_COMPILER_STACK_CHECK_MODE_NORM)
     list(APPEND compile_options "-fstack-protector")
 elseif(CONFIG_COMPILER_STACK_CHECK_MODE_STRONG)
diff --git a/Kconfig b/Kconfig
index c0421160b9..08bf05e1c0 100644
--- a/Kconfig
+++ b/Kconfig
@@ -496,6 +496,15 @@ mainmenu "Espressif IoT Development Framework Configuration"
             help
                 Stack smashing protection.
 
+        config COMPILER_NO_MERGE_CONSTANTS
+            bool "Disable merging const sections"
+            depends on IDF_TOOLCHAIN_GCC
+            help
+                Disable merging identical constants (string/floating-point) across compilation units.
+                This helps in better size analysis of the application binary as the rodata section
+                distribution is more uniform across libraries. On downside, it may increase
+                the binary size and hence should be used during development phase only.
+
         config COMPILER_WARN_WRITE_STRINGS
             bool "Enable -Wwrite-strings warning flag"
             default "n"
diff --git a/tools/test_apps/system/build_test/sdkconfig.ci.no_merge_constants b/tools/test_apps/system/build_test/sdkconfig.ci.no_merge_constants
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d30e4da72b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/test_apps/system/build_test/sdkconfig.ci.no_merge_constants
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+CONFIG_COMPILER_NO_MERGE_CONSTANTS=y