diff --git a/lib/nuxt.js b/lib/nuxt.js
index 5053327f0b..cbe91a83a4 100644
--- a/lib/nuxt.js
+++ b/lib/nuxt.js
@@ -53,7 +53,8 @@ class Nuxt {
       performance: {
         gzip: {
           threshold: 0
-        }
+        },
+        prefetch: true
       },
       watchers: {
         webpack: {},
diff --git a/lib/render.js b/lib/render.js
index 467ec9099c..9199c9153a 100644
--- a/lib/render.js
+++ b/lib/render.js
@@ -95,7 +95,10 @@ export async function renderRoute (url, context = {}) {
   if (this._routerBaseSpecified) {
     HEAD += `<base href="${this.options.router.base}">`
   }
-  HEAD += context.renderResourceHints() + context.renderStyles()
+  if (this.options.performance.prefetch) {
+    HEAD += context.renderResourceHints()
+  }
+  HEAD += context.renderStyles()
   APP += `<script type="text/javascript">window.__NUXT__=${serialize(context.nuxt, { isJSON: true })}</script>`
   APP += context.renderScripts()
   const html = this.appTemplate({