diff --git a/packages/nuxt/src/core/nitro.ts b/packages/nuxt/src/core/nitro.ts
index 917df7dc35..73a7a83377 100644
--- a/packages/nuxt/src/core/nitro.ts
+++ b/packages/nuxt/src/core/nitro.ts
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ export async function initNitro (nuxt: Nuxt & { _nitro?: Nitro }) {
     : [/node_modules/]
 
   const spaLoadingTemplate = nuxt.options.spaLoadingTemplate ?? resolve(nuxt.options.srcDir, 'app/spa-loading-template.html')
-  if (spaLoadingTemplate && nuxt.options.spaLoadingTemplate && !existsSync(spaLoadingTemplate)) {
+  if (spaLoadingTemplate && nuxt.options.spaLoadingTemplate && typeof spaLoadingTemplate !== 'boolean' && !existsSync(spaLoadingTemplate)) {
     console.warn(`[nuxt] Could not load custom \`spaLoadingTemplate\` path as it does not exist: \`${spaLoadingTemplate}\`.`)
   }
 
@@ -89,7 +89,9 @@ export async function initNitro (nuxt: Nuxt & { _nitro?: Nitro }) {
       '#spa-template': () => {
         if (!spaLoadingTemplate) { return 'export const template = ""' }
         try {
-          return `export const template = ${JSON.stringify(readFileSync(spaLoadingTemplate, 'utf-8'))}`
+          if (spaLoadingTemplate !== true) {
+            return `export const template = ${JSON.stringify(readFileSync(spaLoadingTemplate, 'utf-8'))}`
+          }
         } catch {}
         return `export const template = ${JSON.stringify(defaultSpaLoadingTemplate({}))}`
       }
diff --git a/packages/schema/src/config/app.ts b/packages/schema/src/config/app.ts
index af468b54b0..d7b75d1523 100644
--- a/packages/schema/src/config/app.ts
+++ b/packages/schema/src/config/app.ts
@@ -241,10 +241,10 @@ export default defineUntypedSchema({
    * }
    * </style>
    * ```
-   * @type {string | false}
+   * @type {string | boolean}
    */
   spaLoadingTemplate: {
-    $resolve: async (val, get) => typeof val === 'string' ? resolve(await get('srcDir'), val) : (val ?? null)
+    $resolve: async (val, get) => typeof val === 'string' ? resolve(await get('srcDir'), val) : (val ?? false)
   },
 
   /**
diff --git a/test/bundle.test.ts b/test/bundle.test.ts
index 33668ab4c6..f1005e216e 100644
--- a/test/bundle.test.ts
+++ b/test/bundle.test.ts
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ describe.skipIf(process.env.SKIP_BUNDLE_SIZE === 'true' || process.env.ECOSYSTEM
     const serverDir = join(rootDir, '.output/server')
 
     const serverStats = await analyzeSizes(['**/*.mjs', '!node_modules'], serverDir)
-    expect.soft(roundToKilobytes(serverStats.totalBytes)).toMatchInlineSnapshot('"298k"')
+    expect.soft(roundToKilobytes(serverStats.totalBytes)).toMatchInlineSnapshot('"297k"')
 
     const modules = await analyzeSizes('node_modules/**/*', serverDir)
     expect.soft(roundToKilobytes(modules.totalBytes)).toMatchInlineSnapshot('"1822k"')
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ describe.skipIf(process.env.SKIP_BUNDLE_SIZE === 'true' || process.env.ECOSYSTEM
     const serverDir = join(rootDir, '.output-inline/server')
 
     const serverStats = await analyzeSizes(['**/*.mjs', '!node_modules'], serverDir)
-    expect.soft(roundToKilobytes(serverStats.totalBytes)).toMatchInlineSnapshot('"604k"')
+    expect.soft(roundToKilobytes(serverStats.totalBytes)).toMatchInlineSnapshot('"603k"')
 
     const modules = await analyzeSizes('node_modules/**/*', serverDir)
     expect.soft(roundToKilobytes(modules.totalBytes)).toMatchInlineSnapshot('"70.5k"')