diff --git a/packages/platform/src/lib/options.ts b/packages/platform/src/lib/options.ts
index 83b8d87e..12990930 100644
--- a/packages/platform/src/lib/options.ts
+++ b/packages/platform/src/lib/options.ts
@@ -53,6 +53,12 @@ export interface Options {
    * Additional files to include in compilation
    */
   include?: string[];
+  /**
+   * Toggles internal API middleware.
+   * If disabled, a proxy request is used to route /api
+   * requests to / in the production server build.
+   */
+  useAPIMiddleware?: boolean;
 }
 
 export interface PrerenderContentDir {
diff --git a/packages/platform/src/lib/platform-plugin.spec.ts b/packages/platform/src/lib/platform-plugin.spec.ts
index c1b8c532..0da58552 100644
--- a/packages/platform/src/lib/platform-plugin.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/platform/src/lib/platform-plugin.spec.ts
@@ -48,16 +48,4 @@ describe('platformPlugin', () => {
     expect(viteNitroPluginSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith({ ssr: false }, undefined);
     expect(ssrBuildPluginSpy).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
-
-  it('should pass the custom endpoint as part of the nitro runtimeConfig if options.apiPrefix is set to false', async () => {
-    const customPrefix = 'custom-endpoint';
-    const { viteNitroPluginSpy, platformPlugin } = await setup();
-    platformPlugin({ apiPrefix: customPrefix });
-
-    expect(viteNitroPluginSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.anything(), {
-      runtimeConfig: {
-        apiPrefix: customPrefix,
-      },
-    });
-  });
 });
diff --git a/packages/platform/src/lib/platform-plugin.ts b/packages/platform/src/lib/platform-plugin.ts
index 18b08bfc..ee40ee1f 100644
--- a/packages/platform/src/lib/platform-plugin.ts
+++ b/packages/platform/src/lib/platform-plugin.ts
@@ -12,20 +12,12 @@ import { depsPlugin } from './deps-plugin.js';
 import { injectHTMLPlugin } from './ssr/inject-html-plugin.js';
 
 export function platformPlugin(opts: Options = {}): Plugin[] {
-  const { apiPrefix, ...platformOptions } = {
+  const { ...platformOptions } = {
     ssr: true,
     ...opts,
   };
 
   let nitroOptions = platformOptions?.nitro;
-  if (apiPrefix) {
-    nitroOptions = {
-      ...nitroOptions,
-      runtimeConfig: {
-        apiPrefix,
-      },
-    };
-  }
 
   return [
     ...viteNitroPlugin(platformOptions, nitroOptions),
diff --git a/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/options.ts b/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/options.ts
index 8b070532..d250d3e2 100644
--- a/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/options.ts
+++ b/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/options.ts
@@ -19,6 +19,14 @@ export interface Options {
    * Additional API paths to include
    */
   additionalAPIDirs?: string[];
+  apiPrefix?: string;
+
+  /**
+   * Toggles internal API middleware.
+   * If disabled, a proxy request is used to route /api
+   * requests to / in the production server build.
+   */
+  useAPIMiddleware?: boolean;
 }
 
 export interface PrerenderOptions {
diff --git a/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/vite-nitro-plugin.spec.data.ts b/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/vite-nitro-plugin.spec.data.ts
index 9e2b356c..32145662 100644
--- a/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/vite-nitro-plugin.spec.data.ts
+++ b/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/vite-nitro-plugin.spec.data.ts
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ export const mockNitroConfig: NitroConfig = {
       },
     ],
   },
+  routeRules: undefined,
 };
 
 export async function mockBuildFunctions() {
diff --git a/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/vite-plugin-nitro.ts b/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/vite-plugin-nitro.ts
index 1bf30427..51d50be3 100644
--- a/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/vite-plugin-nitro.ts
+++ b/packages/vite-plugin-nitro/src/lib/vite-plugin-nitro.ts
@@ -30,7 +30,11 @@ const __dirname = dirname(__filename);
 export function nitro(options?: Options, nitroOptions?: NitroConfig): Plugin[] {
   const workspaceRoot = options?.workspaceRoot ?? process.cwd();
   const isTest = process.env['NODE_ENV'] === 'test' || !!process.env['VITEST'];
-  const apiPrefix = `/${nitroOptions?.runtimeConfig?.['apiPrefix'] ?? 'api'}`;
+  const apiPrefix = `/${options?.apiPrefix || 'api'}`;
+  const useAPIMiddleware =
+    typeof options?.useAPIMiddleware !== 'undefined'
+      ? options?.useAPIMiddleware
+      : true;
 
   let isBuild = false;
   let isServe = false;
@@ -120,12 +124,21 @@ export function nitro(options?: Options, nitroOptions?: NitroConfig): Plugin[] {
             plugins: [pageEndpointsPlugin()],
           },
           handlers: [
-            {
-              handler: apiMiddlewareHandler,
-              middleware: true,
-            },
+            ...(useAPIMiddleware
+              ? [
+                  {
+                    handler: apiMiddlewareHandler,
+                    middleware: true,
+                  },
+                ]
+              : []),
             ...pageHandlers,
           ],
+          routeRules: useAPIMiddleware
+            ? undefined
+            : {
+                [`${apiPrefix}/**`]: { proxy: { to: '/**' } },
+              },
         };
 
         if (isVercelPreset(buildPreset)) {
@@ -260,10 +273,14 @@ export function nitro(options?: Options, nitroOptions?: NitroConfig): Plugin[] {
               },
               moduleSideEffects: ['zone.js/node', 'zone.js/fesm2015/zone-node'],
               handlers: [
-                {
-                  handler: apiMiddlewareHandler,
-                  middleware: true,
-                },
+                ...(useAPIMiddleware
+                  ? [
+                      {
+                        handler: apiMiddlewareHandler,
+                        middleware: true,
+                      },
+                    ]
+                  : []),
                 ...pageHandlers,
               ],
             };