diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/core/tools/datetimes.py b/python/cudf/cudf/core/tools/datetimes.py
index f7dea65a401..7c4b9810df2 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/core/tools/datetimes.py
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/core/tools/datetimes.py
@@ -833,6 +833,10 @@ def date_range(
         arr = cp.linspace(start=start, stop=end, num=periods)
         result = cudf.core.column.as_column(arr).astype("datetime64[ns]")
         return cudf.DatetimeIndex._from_data({name: result})
+    elif cudf.get_option("mode.pandas_compatible"):
+        raise NotImplementedError(
+            "`DatetimeIndex` with `freq` cannot be constructed."
+        )
 
     # The code logic below assumes `freq` is defined. It is first normalized
     # into `DateOffset` for further computation with timestamps.
diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_datetime.py b/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_datetime.py
index 4c4657ccba1..abcc057f823 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_datetime.py
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_datetime.py
@@ -2133,3 +2133,16 @@ def test_datetime_series_cmpops_pandas_compatibility(data1, data2, op):
 def test_datetime_getitem_na():
     s = cudf.Series([1, 2, None, 3], dtype="datetime64[ns]")
     assert s[2] is cudf.NaT
+
+
+def test_daterange_pandas_compatibility():
+    with cudf.option_context("mode.pandas_compatible", True):
+        with pytest.raises(NotImplementedError):
+            cudf.date_range("20010101", "20020215", freq="400h", name="times")
+        expected = pd.date_range(
+            "2010-01-01", "2010-02-01", periods=10, name="times"
+        )
+        actual = cudf.date_range(
+            "2010-01-01", "2010-02-01", periods=10, name="times"
+        )
+    assert_eq(expected, actual)