diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6717f72a9..e4283c5f3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 ### Fixed
 
 - Fix jwt error returning HTTP status `400` for invalid role by @taimoorzaeem in #3601
+- Allow `db-extra-search-path` to accept empty value by @taimoorzaeem in #4074
 
 ## [13.0.0] - 2025-05-08
 
diff --git a/docs/references/configuration.rst b/docs/references/configuration.rst
index 4312a5898..09ccb7774 100644
--- a/docs/references/configuration.rst
+++ b/docs/references/configuration.rst
@@ -315,6 +315,10 @@ db-extra-search-path
 
   Multiple schemas can be added in a comma-separated string, e.g. ``public, extensions``.
 
+.. important::
+  
+  We default this config to ``public`` because it is the most common schema used to install PostgreSQL extensions such as :ref:`PostGIS <ww_postgis>`. You can disable this by setting this config to ``""``.
+
 .. _db-hoisted-tx-settings:
 
 db-hoisted-tx-settings
diff --git a/src/PostgREST/Config.hs b/src/PostgREST/Config.hs
index e37d5e075..5709fab7f 100644
--- a/src/PostgREST/Config.hs
+++ b/src/PostgREST/Config.hs
@@ -256,7 +256,7 @@ parser optPath env dbSettings roleSettings roleIsolationLvl =
     <*> (fmap encodeUtf8 <$> optString "db-anon-role")
     <*> (fromMaybe "pgrst" <$> optString "db-channel")
     <*> (fromMaybe True <$> optBool "db-channel-enabled")
-    <*> (maybe ["public"] splitOnCommas <$> optString "db-extra-search-path")
+    <*> (maybe ["public"] splitOnCommasEmptyable <$> optStringEmptyable "db-extra-search-path")
     <*> (maybe defaultHoistedAllowList splitOnCommas <$> optString "db-hoisted-tx-settings")
     <*> optWithAlias (optInt "db-max-rows")
                      (optInt "max-rows")
@@ -404,6 +404,9 @@ parser optPath env dbSettings roleSettings roleIsolationLvl =
     optString :: C.Key -> C.Parser C.Config (Maybe Text)
     optString k = mfilter (/= "") <$> overrideFromDbOrEnvironment C.optional k coerceText
 
+    optStringEmptyable :: C.Key -> C.Parser C.Config (Maybe Text)
+    optStringEmptyable k = overrideFromDbOrEnvironment C.optional k coerceText
+
     optInt :: (Read i, Integral i) => C.Key -> C.Parser C.Config (Maybe i)
     optInt k = join <$> overrideFromDbOrEnvironment C.optional k coerceInt
 
@@ -445,6 +448,10 @@ parser optPath env dbSettings roleSettings roleIsolationLvl =
     splitOnCommas :: Text -> [Text]
     splitOnCommas s = T.strip <$> T.splitOn "," s
 
+    splitOnCommasEmptyable :: Text -> [Text]
+    splitOnCommasEmptyable "" = []
+    splitOnCommasEmptyable s  = T.strip <$> T.splitOn "," s
+
     defaultHoistedAllowList = ["statement_timeout","plan_filter.statement_cost_limit","default_transaction_isolation"]
 
     defaultServerHost :: Maybe Text -> Text
diff --git a/test/io/test_io.py b/test/io/test_io.py
index 1a7eb8f70..795316688 100644
--- a/test/io/test_io.py
+++ b/test/io/test_io.py
@@ -1896,3 +1896,16 @@ def test_invalidate_jwt_cache_when_secret_changes(tmp_path, defaultenv):
         # now the request should fail because the cached token is removed
         response = postgrest.session.get("/authors_only", headers=headers)
         assert response.status_code == 401
+
+
+def test_allow_configs_to_be_set_to_empty(defaultenv):
+    'configs that are explicitly set to empty (= "<empty>") should not throw parse error'
+
+    env = {
+        **defaultenv,
+        "PGRST_DB_EXTRA_SEARCH_PATH": "",
+    }
+
+    with run(env=env) as postgrest:
+        response = postgrest.session.get("/projects")
+        assert response.status_code == 200