diff --git a/api/v1alpha1/hostedcluster_types.go b/api/v1alpha1/hostedcluster_types.go
index 02c39d4de3..5f82871893 100644
--- a/api/v1alpha1/hostedcluster_types.go
+++ b/api/v1alpha1/hostedcluster_types.go
@@ -175,7 +175,8 @@ type HostedClusterSpec struct {
 	//
 	// +kubebuilder:default:="https://kubernetes.default.svc"
 	// +immutable
-	IssuerURL string `json:"issuerURL"`
+	// +optional
+	IssuerURL string `json:"issuerURL,omitempty"`
 
 	// Configuration specifies configuration for individual OCP components in the
 	// cluster, represented as embedded resources that correspond to the openshift
diff --git a/cmd/install/assets/hypershift-operator/hypershift.openshift.io_hostedclusters.yaml b/cmd/install/assets/hypershift-operator/hypershift.openshift.io_hostedclusters.yaml
index 4c7b595616..2c672d9847 100644
--- a/cmd/install/assets/hypershift-operator/hypershift.openshift.io_hostedclusters.yaml
+++ b/cmd/install/assets/hypershift-operator/hypershift.openshift.io_hostedclusters.yaml
@@ -928,7 +928,6 @@ spec:
                     type: string
                 type: object
             required:
-            - issuerURL
             - networking
             - platform
             - pullSecret
diff --git a/docs/content/reference/api.md b/docs/content/reference/api.md
index 8d34685f18..3f5fbcee6b 100644
--- a/docs/content/reference/api.md
+++ b/docs/content/reference/api.md
@@ -277,6 +277,7 @@ string
 </em>
 </td>
 <td>
+<em>(Optional)</em>
 <p>IssuerURL is an OIDC issuer URL which is used as the issuer in all
 ServiceAccount tokens generated by the control plane API server. The
 default value is kubernetes.default.svc, which only works for in-cluster
@@ -2426,6 +2427,7 @@ string
 </em>
 </td>
 <td>
+<em>(Optional)</em>
 <p>IssuerURL is an OIDC issuer URL which is used as the issuer in all
 ServiceAccount tokens generated by the control plane API server. The
 default value is kubernetes.default.svc, which only works for in-cluster
diff --git a/hack/app-sre/saas_template.yaml b/hack/app-sre/saas_template.yaml
index a46b318072..96ec1b008d 100644
--- a/hack/app-sre/saas_template.yaml
+++ b/hack/app-sre/saas_template.yaml
@@ -20504,7 +20504,6 @@ objects:
                       type: string
                   type: object
               required:
-              - issuerURL
               - networking
               - platform
               - pullSecret