diff --git a/web/apps/photos/src/components/ml/MLSearchSettings.tsx b/web/apps/photos/src/components/ml/MLSearchSettings.tsx
index d71dffab7e..937c8f75ff 100644
--- a/web/apps/photos/src/components/ml/MLSearchSettings.tsx
+++ b/web/apps/photos/src/components/ml/MLSearchSettings.tsx
@@ -18,11 +18,11 @@ import { t } from "i18next";
 import { AppContext } from "pages/_app";
 import { useContext, useEffect, useState } from "react";
 import { Trans } from "react-i18next";
+import { canEnableFaceIndexing } from "services/face/indexer";
 import {
     getFaceSearchEnabledStatus,
     updateFaceSearchEnabledStatus,
 } from "services/userService";
-import { isInternalUserForML } from "utils/user";
 
 export const MLSearchSettings = ({ open, onClose, onRootClose }) => {
     const {
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ export const MLSearchSettings = ({ open, onClose, onRootClose }) => {
     const enableFaceSearch = async () => {
         try {
             startLoading();
+            // Update the consent flag.
             await updateFaceSearchEnabledStatus(true);
             updateMlSearchEnabled(true);
             closeEnableFaceSearch();
@@ -83,7 +84,6 @@ export const MLSearchSettings = ({ open, onClose, onRootClose }) => {
     const disableFaceSearch = async () => {
         try {
             startLoading();
-            await updateFaceSearchEnabledStatus(false);
             await disableMlSearch();
             finishLoading();
         } catch (e) {
@@ -258,6 +258,12 @@ function EnableMLSearch({ onClose, enableMlSearch, onRootClose }) {
     // const showDetails = () =>
     //     openLink("https://ente.io/blog/desktop-ml-beta", true);
 
+    const [canEnable, setCanEnable] = useState(false);
+
+    useEffect(() => {
+        canEnableFaceIndexing().then((v) => setCanEnable(v));
+    }, []);
+
     return (
         <Stack spacing={"4px"} py={"12px"}>
             <Titlebar
@@ -273,7 +279,7 @@ function EnableMLSearch({ onClose, enableMlSearch, onRootClose }) {
                         We're putting finishing touches, coming back soon!
                     </Typography>
                 </Box>
-                {isInternalUserForML() && (
+                {canEnable && (
                     <Stack px={"8px"} spacing={"8px"}>
                         <Button
                             color={"accent"}
diff --git a/web/apps/photos/src/pages/gallery/index.tsx b/web/apps/photos/src/pages/gallery/index.tsx
index d375e48fc8..a1cba432c1 100644
--- a/web/apps/photos/src/pages/gallery/index.tsx
+++ b/web/apps/photos/src/pages/gallery/index.tsx
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ import {
 import downloadManager from "services/download";
 import { syncCLIPEmbeddings } from "services/embeddingService";
 import { syncEntities } from "services/entityService";
+import { fetchAndSaveFeatureFlagsIfNeeded } from "services/feature-flag";
 import { getLocalFiles, syncFiles } from "services/fileService";
 import locationSearchService from "services/locationSearchService";
 import { getLocalTrashedFiles, syncTrash } from "services/trashService";
@@ -713,6 +714,7 @@ export default function Gallery() {
             await syncTrash(collections, setTrashedFiles);
             await syncEntities();
             await syncMapEnabled();
+            fetchAndSaveFeatureFlagsIfNeeded();
             const electron = globalThis.electron;
             if (electron) {
                 await syncCLIPEmbeddings();
diff --git a/web/apps/photos/src/services/face/indexer.ts b/web/apps/photos/src/services/face/indexer.ts
index 095e65d400..7b446b42e1 100644
--- a/web/apps/photos/src/services/face/indexer.ts
+++ b/web/apps/photos/src/services/face/indexer.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { ComlinkWorker } from "@/next/worker/comlink-worker";
 import { ensure } from "@/utils/ensure";
 import { wait } from "@/utils/promise";
 import { type Remote } from "comlink";
+import { isBetaUser, isInternalUser } from "services/feature-flag";
 import { getAllLocalFiles } from "services/fileService";
 import mlWorkManager from "services/machineLearning/mlWorkManager";
 import type { EnteFile } from "types/file";
@@ -194,6 +195,13 @@ export const unidentifiedFaceIDs = async (
     return index?.faceEmbedding.faces.map((f) => f.faceID) ?? [];
 };
 
+/**
+ * Return true if we should show an option to the user to allow them to enable
+ * face search in the UI.
+ */
+export const canEnableFaceIndexing = async () =>
+    isInternalUserForML() || (await isInternalUser()) || (await isBetaUser());
+
 /**
  * Return true if the user has enabled face indexing in the app's settings.
  *
@@ -204,12 +212,7 @@ export const unidentifiedFaceIDs = async (
  * hand, denotes whether or not indexing is enabled on the current client.
  */
 export const isFaceIndexingEnabled = async () => {
-    if (isInternalUserForML()) {
-        return localStorage.getItem("faceIndexingEnabled") == "1";
-    }
-    // Force disabled for everyone else while we finalize it to avoid redundant
-    // reindexing for users.
-    return false;
+    return localStorage.getItem("faceIndexingEnabled") == "1";
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/web/apps/photos/src/services/feature-flag.ts b/web/apps/photos/src/services/feature-flag.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2dbca26731
--- /dev/null
+++ b/web/apps/photos/src/services/feature-flag.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+import log from "@/next/log";
+import { ensure } from "@/utils/ensure";
+import { apiOrigin } from "@ente/shared/network/api";
+import { getToken } from "@ente/shared/storage/localStorage/helpers";
+
+let _fetchTimeout: ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | undefined;
+let _haveFetched = false;
+
+/**
+ * Fetch feature flags (potentially user specific) from remote and save them in
+ * local storage for subsequent lookup.
+ *
+ * It fetches only once per session, and so is safe to call as arbitrarily many
+ * times. Remember to call {@link clearFeatureFlagSessionState} on logout to
+ * forget that we've already fetched so that these can be fetched again on the
+ * subsequent login.
+ */
+export const fetchAndSaveFeatureFlagsIfNeeded = () => {
+    if (_haveFetched) return;
+    if (_fetchTimeout) return;
+    // Not critical, so fetch these after some delay.
+    _fetchTimeout = setTimeout(() => {
+        _fetchTimeout = undefined;
+        void fetchAndSaveFeatureFlags().then(() => {
+            _haveFetched = true;
+        });
+    }, 2000);
+};
+
+export const clearFeatureFlagSessionState = () => {
+    if (_fetchTimeout) {
+        clearTimeout(_fetchTimeout);
+        _fetchTimeout = undefined;
+    }
+    _haveFetched = false;
+};
+
+/**
+ * Fetch feature flags (potentially user specific) from remote and save them in
+ * local storage for subsequent lookup.
+ */
+const fetchAndSaveFeatureFlags = () =>
+    fetchFeatureFlags()
+        .then((res) => res.text())
+        .then(saveFlagJSONString);
+
+const fetchFeatureFlags = async () => {
+    const url = `${apiOrigin()}/remote-store/feature-flags`;
+    const res = await fetch(url, {
+        headers: {
+            "X-Auth-Token": ensure(getToken()),
+        },
+    });
+    if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Failed to fetch ${url}: HTTP ${res.status}`);
+    return res;
+};
+
+const saveFlagJSONString = (s: string) =>
+    localStorage.setItem("remoteFeatureFlags", s);
+
+const remoteFeatureFlags = () => {
+    const s = localStorage.getItem("remoteFeatureFlags");
+    if (!s) return undefined;
+    return JSON.parse(s);
+};
+
+const remoteFeatureFlagsFetchingIfNeeded = async () => {
+    let ff = await remoteFeatureFlags();
+    if (!ff) {
+        try {
+            await fetchAndSaveFeatureFlags();
+            ff = await remoteFeatureFlags();
+        } catch (e) {
+            log.warn("Ignoring error when fetching feature flags", e);
+        }
+    }
+    return ff;
+};
+
+/**
+ * Return `true` if the current user is marked as an "internal" user.
+ */
+export const isInternalUser = async () => {
+    // TODO: Dedup
+    const flags = await remoteFeatureFlagsFetchingIfNeeded();
+    // TODO(MR): Use Yup here
+    if (
+        flags &&
+        typeof flags === "object" &&
+        "internalUser" in flags &&
+        typeof flags.internalUser == "boolean"
+    )
+        return flags.internalUser;
+    return false;
+};
+
+/**
+ * Return `true` if the current user is marked as a "beta" user.
+ */
+export const isBetaUser = async () => {
+    const flags = await remoteFeatureFlagsFetchingIfNeeded();
+    // TODO(MR): Use Yup here
+    if (
+        flags &&
+        typeof flags === "object" &&
+        "betaUser" in flags &&
+        typeof flags.betaUser == "boolean"
+    )
+        return flags.betaUser;
+    return false;
+};
diff --git a/web/apps/photos/src/services/logout.ts b/web/apps/photos/src/services/logout.ts
index 4e09516dee..9da892bad2 100644
--- a/web/apps/photos/src/services/logout.ts
+++ b/web/apps/photos/src/services/logout.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { clipService } from "services/clip-service";
 import DownloadManager from "./download";
 import exportService from "./export";
 import { clearFaceData } from "./face/db";
+import { clearFeatureFlagSessionState } from "./feature-flag";
 import mlWorkManager from "./machineLearning/mlWorkManager";
 
 /**
@@ -19,6 +20,12 @@ export const photosLogout = async () => {
 
     await accountLogout();
 
+    try {
+        clearFeatureFlagSessionState();
+    } catch (e) {
+        ignoreError("feature-flag", e);
+    }
+
     try {
         await DownloadManager.logout();
     } catch (e) {
diff --git a/web/packages/shared/network/api.ts b/web/packages/shared/network/api.ts
index 3cda6b615d..7ba49ec960 100644
--- a/web/packages/shared/network/api.ts
+++ b/web/packages/shared/network/api.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+/**
+ * Return the origin (scheme, host, port triple) that should be used for making
+ * API requests to museum.
+ *
+ * This defaults to api.ente.io, Ente's own servers, but can be overridden when
+ * running locally by setting the `NEXT_PUBLIC_ENTE_ENDPOINT` environment
+ * variable.
+ */
+export const apiOrigin = () => getEndpoint();
+
 export const getEndpoint = () => {
     const endpoint = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ENTE_ENDPOINT;
     if (endpoint) {