diff --git a/src/nix/progress-bar.cc b/src/nix/progress-bar.cc
index 661966733d3..28199c917fc 100644
--- a/src/nix/progress-bar.cc
+++ b/src/nix/progress-bar.cc
@@ -439,7 +439,9 @@ class ProgressBar : public Logger
 
 void startProgressBar(bool printBuildLogs)
 {
-    logger = new ProgressBar(printBuildLogs, isatty(STDERR_FILENO));
+    logger = new ProgressBar(
+        printBuildLogs,
+        isatty(STDERR_FILENO) && getEnv("TERM").value_or("dumb") != "dumb");
 }
 
 void stopProgressBar()