diff --git a/command/cli.go b/command/cli.go
index 826835ef2..e1eb1ffbc 100644
--- a/command/cli.go
+++ b/command/cli.go
@@ -136,6 +136,7 @@ type FixArgs struct {
 func (va *ValidateArgs) AddFlagSets(flags *flag.FlagSet) {
 	flags.BoolVar(&va.SyntaxOnly, "syntax-only", false, "check syntax only")
 	flags.BoolVar(&va.NoWarnUndeclaredVar, "no-warn-undeclared-var", false, "Ignore warnings for variable files containing undeclared variables.")
+	flags.BoolVar(&va.EvaluateDatasources, "evaluate-datasources", false, "evaluate datasources for validation (HCL2 only, may incur costs)")
 
 	va.MetaArgs.AddFlagSets(flags)
 }
@@ -144,6 +145,7 @@ func (va *ValidateArgs) AddFlagSets(flags *flag.FlagSet) {
 type ValidateArgs struct {
 	MetaArgs
 	SyntaxOnly, NoWarnUndeclaredVar bool
+	EvaluateDatasources             bool
 }
 
 func (va *InspectArgs) AddFlagSets(flags *flag.FlagSet) {
diff --git a/command/test-fixtures/hcl/local-ds-validate.pkr.hcl b/command/test-fixtures/hcl/local-ds-validate.pkr.hcl
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..47a2f9fd1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/test-fixtures/hcl/local-ds-validate.pkr.hcl
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+data "null" "dep" {
+	input = "upload"
+}
+
+source "null" "test" {
+	communicator = "none"
+}
+
+build {
+	sources = ["sources.null.test"]
+
+	provisioner "file" {
+		source = "test-fixtures/hcl/force.pkr.hcl"
+		destination = "dest"
+		direction = "${data.null.dep.output}"
+	}
+}
diff --git a/command/validate.go b/command/validate.go
index 304db1a38..718fcc121 100644
--- a/command/validate.go
+++ b/command/validate.go
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ func (c *ValidateCommand) RunContext(ctx context.Context, cla *ValidateArgs) int
 	}
 
 	diags := packerStarter.Initialize(packer.InitializeOptions{
-		SkipDatasourcesExecution: true,
+		SkipDatasourcesExecution: !cla.EvaluateDatasources,
 	})
 	ret = writeDiags(c.Ui, nil, diags)
 	if ret != 0 {
diff --git a/command/validate_test.go b/command/validate_test.go
index 5b9b346aa..3a2c6b20a 100644
--- a/command/validate_test.go
+++ b/command/validate_test.go
@@ -11,8 +11,9 @@ import (
 
 func TestValidateCommand(t *testing.T) {
 	tt := []struct {
-		path     string
-		exitCode int
+		path      string
+		exitCode  int
+		extraArgs []string
 	}{
 		{path: filepath.Join(testFixture("validate"), "build.json")},
 		{path: filepath.Join(testFixture("validate"), "build.pkr.hcl")},
@@ -39,6 +40,11 @@ func TestValidateCommand(t *testing.T) {
 
 		// datasource could be unknown at that moment
 		{path: filepath.Join(testFixture("hcl", "data-source-validation.pkr.hcl")), exitCode: 0},
+
+		// datasource unknown at validation-time without datasource evaluation -> fail on provisioner
+		{path: filepath.Join(testFixture("hcl", "local-ds-validate.pkr.hcl")), exitCode: 1},
+		// datasource unknown at validation-time with datasource evaluation -> success
+		{path: filepath.Join(testFixture("hcl", "local-ds-validate.pkr.hcl")), exitCode: 0, extraArgs: []string{"--evaluate-datasources"}},
 	}
 
 	for _, tc := range tt {
@@ -47,7 +53,8 @@ func TestValidateCommand(t *testing.T) {
 				Meta: TestMetaFile(t),
 			}
 			tc := tc
-			args := []string{tc.path}
+			args := tc.extraArgs
+			args = append(args, tc.path)
 			if code := c.Run(args); code != tc.exitCode {
 				fatalCommand(t, c.Meta)
 			}
diff --git a/website/content/docs/commands/validate.mdx b/website/content/docs/commands/validate.mdx
index 57026315e..8b06c274f 100644
--- a/website/content/docs/commands/validate.mdx
+++ b/website/content/docs/commands/validate.mdx
@@ -31,6 +31,14 @@ Errors validating build 'vmware'. 1 error(s) occurred:
 - `-syntax-only` - Only the syntax of the template is checked. The
   configuration is not validated.
 
+- `-evaluate-datasources` - Evaluate all data sources when validating a template.
+  This is only valid on HCL2 templates, since JSON templates do not feature
+  datasources, this option will be ignored.
+
+  ~> **Warning:** Data sources may rely on external services for fetching data,
+  which can incur some costs at validation if the services being contacted are
+  billing per operation.
+
 - `-except=foo,bar,baz` - Validates all the builds except those with the
   comma-separated names. In legacy JSON templates, build names default to the
   types of their builders (e.g. `docker` or