diff --git a/docs/envvars.rst b/docs/envvars.rst
index 8c2ce3a6f7c..0a7e8e617cc 100644
--- a/docs/envvars.rst
+++ b/docs/envvars.rst
@@ -730,6 +730,10 @@ Gallium environment variables
 
    control default visibility, defaults to true.
 
+.. envvar:: GALLIUM_HUD_OPACITY
+
+   control background opacity as an integer percentage (1-100), defaults to 66%.
+
 .. envvar:: GALLIUM_HUD_TOGGLE_SIGNAL
 
    toggle visibility via user specified signal. Especially useful to
diff --git a/src/gallium/auxiliary/hud/hud_context.c b/src/gallium/auxiliary/hud/hud_context.c
index 0d5229952f6..f5b11c42509 100644
--- a/src/gallium/auxiliary/hud/hud_context.c
+++ b/src/gallium/auxiliary/hud/hud_context.c
@@ -71,11 +71,13 @@
 #define HUD_DEFAULT_VISIBILITY TRUE
 #define HUD_DEFAULT_SCALE 1
 #define HUD_DEFAULT_ROTATION 0
+#define HUD_DEFAULT_OPACITY 66
 
 /* Control the visibility of all HUD contexts */
 static boolean huds_visible = HUD_DEFAULT_VISIBILITY;
 static int hud_scale = HUD_DEFAULT_SCALE;
 static int hud_rotate = HUD_DEFAULT_ROTATION;
+static float hud_opacity = HUD_DEFAULT_OPACITY / 100.0f;
 
 #if DETECT_OS_UNIX
 static void
@@ -593,7 +595,7 @@ hud_draw_results(struct hud_context *hud, struct pipe_resource *tex)
       hud->constants.color[0] = 0;
       hud->constants.color[1] = 0;
       hud->constants.color[2] = 0;
-      hud->constants.color[3] = 0.666f;
+      hud->constants.color[3] = hud_opacity;
       hud->constants.translate[0] = 0;
       hud->constants.translate[1] = 0;
       hud->constants.scale[0] = hud_scale;
@@ -1936,6 +1938,7 @@ hud_create(struct cso_context *cso, struct hud_context *share,
    memset(&action, 0, sizeof(action));
 #endif
    huds_visible = debug_get_bool_option("GALLIUM_HUD_VISIBLE", !emulate_libgl_show_fps);
+   hud_opacity = debug_get_num_option("GALLIUM_HUD_OPACITY", HUD_DEFAULT_OPACITY) / 100.0f;
    hud_scale = debug_get_num_option("GALLIUM_HUD_SCALE", HUD_DEFAULT_SCALE);
    hud_rotate = debug_get_num_option("GALLIUM_HUD_ROTATION", HUD_DEFAULT_ROTATION) % 360;
    if (hud_rotate < 0) {