diff --git a/cached_path/_cached_path.py b/cached_path/_cached_path.py
index 738e98e..4121f28 100644
--- a/cached_path/_cached_path.py
+++ b/cached_path/_cached_path.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 import tarfile
 import tempfile
 from pathlib import Path
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Optional, Tuple
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Literal, Optional, Tuple, Union
 from urllib.parse import urlparse
 from zipfile import ZipFile, is_zipfile
 
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ def _is_archive(file_path: PathOrStr, url_or_filename) -> bool:
 def cached_path(
     url_or_filename: PathOrStr,
     cache_dir: Optional[PathOrStr] = None,
-    extract_archive: bool = False,
+    extract_archive: Union[bool, Literal["auto"]] = "auto",
     force_extract: bool = False,
     quiet: bool = False,
     progress: Optional["Progress"] = None,
@@ -104,12 +104,12 @@ def cached_path(
 
         cached_path("hf://epwalsh/bert-xsmall-dummy/pytorch_model.bin")
 
-    For paths or URLs that point to a tarfile or zipfile, you can append the path
-    to a specific file within the archive to the ``url_or_filename``, preceeded by a "!".
-    The archive will be automatically extracted (provided you set ``extract_archive`` to ``True``),
+    For paths or URLs that point to a TAR or ZIP file, you can append the path
+    to a specific file within the archive to the ``url_or_filename``, preceded by a "!".
+    The archive will be automatically extracted,
     returning the local path to the specific file. For example::
 
-        cached_path("model.tar.gz!weights.th", extract_archive=True)
+        cached_path("model.tar.gz!weights.th")
 
     .. _epwalsh/bert-xsmall-dummy: https://huggingface.co/epwalsh/bert-xsmall-dummy
 
@@ -126,7 +126,8 @@ def cached_path(
 
     extract_archive :
         If ``True``, then zip or tar.gz archives will be automatically extracted.
-        In which case the directory is returned.
+        If `"auto"`, then it's extracted only if it contains a "!".
+        In extracted, the directory is returned.
 
     force_extract :
         If ``True`` and the file is an archive file, it will be extracted regardless
@@ -168,9 +169,15 @@ def cached_path(
     file_path: Path
     extraction_path: Optional[Path] = None
     etag: Optional[str] = None
+    exclamation_index = url_or_filename.find("!")
+
+    if isinstance(extract_archive, str):
+        if extract_archive == "auto":
+            extract_archive = exclamation_index >= 0
+        else:
+            raise ValueError(f"Invalid value for `extract_archive`: {extract_archive}")
 
     # If we're using the /a/b/foo.zip!c/d/file.txt syntax, handle it here.
-    exclamation_index = url_or_filename.find("!")
     if extract_archive and exclamation_index >= 0:
         archive_path = url_or_filename[:exclamation_index]
         file_name = url_or_filename[exclamation_index + 1 :]