diff --git a/internal/grpc/interceptors/auth/auth.go b/internal/grpc/interceptors/auth/auth.go
index 353023d68b..927eab3713 100644
--- a/internal/grpc/interceptors/auth/auth.go
+++ b/internal/grpc/interceptors/auth/auth.go
@@ -209,11 +209,12 @@ func dismantleToken(ctx context.Context, tkn string, req interface{}, mgr token.
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	if fetchUserGroups {
+	if sharedconf.SkipUserGroupsInToken() && fetchUserGroups {
 		groups, err := getUserGroups(ctx, u, gatewayAddr)
-		if err == nil {
-			u.Groups = groups
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
 		}
+		u.Groups = groups
 	}
 
 	// Check if access to the resource is in the scope of the token
diff --git a/internal/grpc/services/gateway/authprovider.go b/internal/grpc/services/gateway/authprovider.go
index fe9c1e680a..f9705cb49d 100644
--- a/internal/grpc/services/gateway/authprovider.go
+++ b/internal/grpc/services/gateway/authprovider.go
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/cs3org/reva/pkg/errtypes"
 	"github.com/cs3org/reva/pkg/rgrpc/status"
 	"github.com/cs3org/reva/pkg/rgrpc/todo/pool"
+	"github.com/cs3org/reva/pkg/sharedconf"
 	"github.com/cs3org/reva/pkg/utils"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 	"google.golang.org/grpc/metadata"
@@ -98,6 +99,11 @@ func (s *svc) Authenticate(ctx context.Context, req *gateway.AuthenticateRequest
 		}, nil
 	}
 
+	u := res.User
+	if sharedconf.SkipUserGroupsInToken() {
+		u.Groups = []string{}
+	}
+
 	// We need to expand the scopes of lightweight accounts, user shares and
 	// public shares, for which we need to retrieve the receieved shares and stat
 	// the resources referenced by these. Since the current scope can do that,
@@ -180,8 +186,12 @@ func (s *svc) WhoAmI(ctx context.Context, req *gateway.WhoAmIRequest) (*gateway.
 			Status: status.NewUnauthenticated(ctx, err, "error dismantling token"),
 		}, nil
 	}
-	groupsRes, err := s.GetUserGroups(ctx, &userpb.GetUserGroupsRequest{UserId: u.Id})
-	if err == nil {
+
+	if sharedconf.SkipUserGroupsInToken() {
+		groupsRes, err := s.GetUserGroups(ctx, &userpb.GetUserGroupsRequest{UserId: u.Id})
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
 		u.Groups = groupsRes.Groups
 	}
 
diff --git a/internal/http/interceptors/auth/auth.go b/internal/http/interceptors/auth/auth.go
index e52cc7a032..57b616c13c 100644
--- a/internal/http/interceptors/auth/auth.go
+++ b/internal/http/interceptors/auth/auth.go
@@ -247,17 +247,22 @@ func New(m map[string]interface{}, unprotected []string) (global.Middleware, err
 				return
 			}
 
-			var groups []string
-			if groupsIf, err := userGroupsCache.Get(u.Id.OpaqueId); err == nil {
-				groups = groupsIf.([]string)
-			} else {
-				groupsRes, err := client.GetUserGroups(ctx, &userpb.GetUserGroupsRequest{UserId: u.Id})
-				if err == nil {
+			if sharedconf.SkipUserGroupsInToken() {
+				var groups []string
+				if groupsIf, err := userGroupsCache.Get(u.Id.OpaqueId); err == nil {
+					groups = groupsIf.([]string)
+				} else {
+					groupsRes, err := client.GetUserGroups(ctx, &userpb.GetUserGroupsRequest{UserId: u.Id})
+					if err != nil {
+						log.Error().Err(err).Msg("error retrieving user groups")
+						w.WriteHeader(http.StatusInternalServerError)
+						return
+					}
 					groups = groupsRes.Groups
 					_ = userGroupsCache.SetWithExpire(u.Id.OpaqueId, groupsRes.Groups, 3600*time.Second)
 				}
+				u.Groups = groups
 			}
-			u.Groups = groups
 
 			// ensure access to the resource is allowed
 			ok, err := scope.VerifyScope(tokenScope, r.URL.Path)
diff --git a/pkg/sharedconf/sharedconf.go b/pkg/sharedconf/sharedconf.go
index 0025b305c0..d458c9bc22 100644
--- a/pkg/sharedconf/sharedconf.go
+++ b/pkg/sharedconf/sharedconf.go
@@ -28,9 +28,10 @@ import (
 var sharedConf = &conf{}
 
 type conf struct {
-	JWTSecret   string `mapstructure:"jwt_secret"`
-	GatewaySVC  string `mapstructure:"gatewaysvc"`
-	DataGateway string `mapstructure:"datagateway"`
+	JWTSecret             string `mapstructure:"jwt_secret"`
+	GatewaySVC            string `mapstructure:"gatewaysvc"`
+	DataGateway           string `mapstructure:"datagateway"`
+	SkipUserGroupsInToken bool   `mapstructure:"skip_user_groups_in_token"`
 }
 
 // Decode decodes the configuration.
@@ -86,3 +87,8 @@ func GetDataGateway(val string) string {
 	}
 	return val
 }
+
+// SkipUserGroupsInToken returns whether to skip encoding user groups in the access tokens.
+func SkipUserGroupsInToken() bool {
+	return sharedConf.SkipUserGroupsInToken
+}
diff --git a/pkg/token/manager/jwt/jwt.go b/pkg/token/manager/jwt/jwt.go
index 314effba9d..e54df4dae9 100644
--- a/pkg/token/manager/jwt/jwt.go
+++ b/pkg/token/manager/jwt/jwt.go
@@ -87,12 +87,6 @@ func New(value map[string]interface{}) (token.Manager, error) {
 
 func (m *manager) MintToken(ctx context.Context, u *user.User, scope map[string]*auth.Scope) (string, error) {
 	ttl := time.Duration(m.conf.Expires) * time.Second
-
-	// We don't encode the groups in the JWT token to reduce its size.
-	// Whenever any services need to enquire about these, they need to make a
-	// request to the userprovider service and cache these on their end.
-	u.Groups = []string{}
-
 	claims := claims{
 		StandardClaims: jwt.StandardClaims{
 			ExpiresAt: time.Now().Add(ttl).Unix(),