diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/resources/core-default.xml b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/resources/core-default.xml
index d5cb5cceecc..9e6bdc24332 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/resources/core-default.xml
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/resources/core-default.xml
@@ -2141,6 +2141,13 @@ The switch to turn S3A auditing on or off.
   <description>The AbstractFileSystem for gs: uris.</description>
 </property>
 
+<property>
+  <name>fs.azure.enable.readahead</name>
+  <value>false</value>
+  <description>Disable readahead/prefetching in AbfsInputStream.
+    See HADOOP-18521</description>
+</property>
+
 <property>
   <name>io.seqfile.compress.blocksize</name>
   <value>1000000</value>
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/constants/FileSystemConfigurations.java b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/constants/FileSystemConfigurations.java
index 42f3b7503e0..097285bb48f 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/constants/FileSystemConfigurations.java
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/constants/FileSystemConfigurations.java
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ public final class FileSystemConfigurations {
   public static final boolean DEFAULT_ABFS_LATENCY_TRACK = false;
   public static final long DEFAULT_SAS_TOKEN_RENEW_PERIOD_FOR_STREAMS_IN_SECONDS = 120;
 
-  public static final boolean DEFAULT_ENABLE_READAHEAD = true;
+  public static final boolean DEFAULT_ENABLE_READAHEAD = false;
   public static final String DEFAULT_FS_AZURE_USER_AGENT_PREFIX = EMPTY_STRING;
   public static final String DEFAULT_VALUE_UNKNOWN = "UNKNOWN";
 
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/services/AbfsInputStreamContext.java b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/services/AbfsInputStreamContext.java
index 05afc7b9858..b479c22fcee 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/services/AbfsInputStreamContext.java
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/services/AbfsInputStreamContext.java
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ public class AbfsInputStreamContext extends AbfsStreamContext {
 
   private boolean tolerateOobAppends;
 
-  private boolean isReadAheadEnabled = true;
+  private boolean isReadAheadEnabled = false;
 
   private boolean alwaysReadBufferSize;
 
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/contract/ITestAbfsFileSystemContractSeek.java b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/contract/ITestAbfsFileSystemContractSeek.java
index f7fe5039799..aaf47f7a9c8 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/contract/ITestAbfsFileSystemContractSeek.java
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/contract/ITestAbfsFileSystemContractSeek.java
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.fs.contract.AbstractFSContract;
 
 import static org.apache.hadoop.fs.azurebfs.constants.ConfigurationKeys.AZURE_READ_AHEAD_RANGE;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.fs.azurebfs.constants.ConfigurationKeys.AZURE_READ_BUFFER_SIZE;
+import static org.apache.hadoop.fs.azurebfs.constants.ConfigurationKeys.FS_AZURE_ENABLE_READAHEAD;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.fs.azurebfs.constants.FileSystemConfigurations.MIN_BUFFER_SIZE;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.fs.contract.ContractTestUtils.createFile;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.fs.contract.ContractTestUtils.dataset;
@@ -68,6 +69,7 @@ public class ITestAbfsFileSystemContractSeek extends AbstractContractSeekTest{
   protected AbstractFSContract createContract(final Configuration conf) {
     conf.setInt(AZURE_READ_AHEAD_RANGE, MIN_BUFFER_SIZE);
     conf.setInt(AZURE_READ_BUFFER_SIZE, MIN_BUFFER_SIZE);
+    conf.setBoolean(FS_AZURE_ENABLE_READAHEAD, true);
     return new AbfsFileSystemContract(conf, isSecure);
   }
 
diff --git a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/services/TestAbfsInputStream.java b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/services/TestAbfsInputStream.java
index b5ae9b73784..69795ee5bd8 100644
--- a/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/services/TestAbfsInputStream.java
+++ b/hadoop-tools/hadoop-azure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/azurebfs/services/TestAbfsInputStream.java
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@ public class TestAbfsInputStream extends
   private AbfsInputStream getAbfsInputStream(AbfsClient mockAbfsClient,
       String fileName) throws IOException {
     AbfsInputStreamContext inputStreamContext = new AbfsInputStreamContext(-1);
+    inputStreamContext.isReadAheadEnabled(true);
     // Create AbfsInputStream with the client instance
     AbfsInputStream inputStream = new AbfsInputStream(
         mockAbfsClient,
@@ -131,6 +132,7 @@ public class TestAbfsInputStream extends
       boolean alwaysReadBufferSize,
       int readAheadBlockSize) throws IOException {
     AbfsInputStreamContext inputStreamContext = new AbfsInputStreamContext(-1);
+    inputStreamContext.isReadAheadEnabled(true);
     // Create AbfsInputStream with the client instance
     AbfsInputStream inputStream = new AbfsInputStream(
         abfsClient,