diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/ApolloServer.ts b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/ApolloServer.ts
index fb9a31e1146..f3c9e1ca63a 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/ApolloServer.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/ApolloServer.ts
@@ -101,15 +101,17 @@ export class ApolloServerBase {
     const env = process.env.NODE_ENV;
     const isDev = env !== 'production' && env !== 'test';
 
-    // if this is local dev, we want graphql gui and introspection to be turned on
-    // in production, you can manually turn these on by passing { introspection: true }
-    // to the constructor of ApolloServer
     // we use this.disableTools to track this internally for later use when
-    // constructing middleware by frameworks
-    if (typeof introspection === 'boolean') this.disableTools = !introspection;
-    else this.disableTools = !isDev;
+    // constructing middleware by frameworks to disable graphql playground
+    this.disableTools = !isDev;
 
-    if (this.disableTools) {
+    // if this is local dev, introspection should turned on
+    // in production, we can manually turn introspection on by passing {
+    // introspection: true } to the constructor of ApolloServer
+    if (
+      (typeof introspection === 'boolean' && !introspection) ||
+      (introspection === undefined && !isDev)
+    ) {
       const noIntro = [NoIntrospection];
       requestOptions.validationRules = requestOptions.validationRules
         ? requestOptions.validationRules.concat(noIntro)
diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-express/src/ApolloServer.test.ts b/packages/apollo-server-express/src/ApolloServer.test.ts
index e9a40d8a9f3..a890cdfeef4 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-express/src/ApolloServer.test.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-express/src/ApolloServer.test.ts
@@ -73,6 +73,60 @@ describe('apollo-server-express', () => {
       expect(result.errors, 'errors should exist').not.to.exist;
     });
 
+    it('can enable gui separately from instrospection during production', async () => {
+      const INTROSPECTION_QUERY = `
+  {
+    __schema {
+      directives {
+        name
+      }
+    }
+  }
+`;
+      const nodeEnv = process.env.NODE_ENV;
+      process.env.NODE_ENV = 'production';
+
+      server = new ApolloServer({
+        typeDefs,
+        resolvers,
+      });
+      app = express();
+
+      registerServer({ app, server, enableGUI: true });
+
+      const { url } = await server.listen();
+      const apolloFetch = createApolloFetch({ uri: url });
+      const result = await apolloFetch({ query: INTROSPECTION_QUERY });
+
+      expect(result.errors.length).to.equal(1);
+      expect(result.errors[0].extensions.code).to.equal(
+        'GRAPHQL_VALIDATION_FAILED',
+      );
+
+      return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+        request(
+          {
+            url,
+            method: 'GET',
+            headers: {
+              accept:
+                'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8',
+            },
+          },
+          (error, response, body) => {
+            process.env.NODE_ENV = nodeEnv;
+            if (error) {
+              reject(error);
+            } else {
+              expect(body).to.contain('GraphQLPlayground');
+              expect(response.statusCode).to.equal(200);
+              resolve();
+            }
+          },
+        );
+      });
+    });
+
     it('renders GraphQL playground when browser requests', async () => {
       const nodeEnv = process.env.NODE_ENV;
       delete process.env.NODE_ENV;
@@ -172,6 +226,7 @@ describe('apollo-server-express', () => {
         registerServer({ app, server, bodyParserConfig: { limit: 0 } });
 
         const { port } = await server.listen();
+
         return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
           request(
             {
@@ -260,7 +315,7 @@ describe('apollo-server-express', () => {
       });
     });
     describe('file uploads', () => {
-      xit('enabled uploads', async () => {
+      it('enabled uploads', async () => {
         server = new ApolloServer({
           typeDefs: gql`
             type File {
diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-express/src/ApolloServer.ts b/packages/apollo-server-express/src/ApolloServer.ts
index 55c730dbfac..9c6b65086d6 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-express/src/ApolloServer.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-express/src/ApolloServer.ts
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ export interface ServerRegistration {
   bodyParserConfig?: OptionsJson;
   onHealthCheck?: (req: express.Request) => Promise<any>;
   disableHealthCheck?: boolean;
+  enableGUI?: boolean;
   //https://github.com/jaydenseric/apollo-upload-server#options
   uploads?: boolean | Record<string, any>;
 }
@@ -79,6 +80,7 @@ export const registerServer = async ({
   cors,
   bodyParserConfig,
   disableHealthCheck,
+  enableGUI,
   onHealthCheck,
   uploads,
 }: ServerRegistration) => {
@@ -132,7 +134,11 @@ export const registerServer = async ({
     uploadsMiddleware ? uploadsMiddleware : (_req, _res, next) => next(),
     (req, res, next) => {
       // make sure we check to see if graphql gui should be on
-      if (!server.disableTools && req.method === 'GET') {
+      // enableGUI takes precedence over the server tools setting
+      if (
+        (enableGUI || (enableGUI === undefined && !server.disableTools)) &&
+        req.method === 'GET'
+      ) {
         //perform more expensive content-type check only if necessary
         const accept = accepts(req);
         const types = accept.types() as string[];
diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-hapi/src/ApolloServer.ts b/packages/apollo-server-hapi/src/ApolloServer.ts
index 6b89c5b1d66..00a4b85b076 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-hapi/src/ApolloServer.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-hapi/src/ApolloServer.ts
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ export interface ServerRegistration {
   cors?: boolean;
   onHealthCheck?: (request: hapi.Request) => Promise<any>;
   disableHealthCheck?: boolean;
+  enableGUI?: boolean;
   uploads?: boolean | Record<string, any>;
 }
 
@@ -65,6 +66,7 @@ export const registerServer = async ({
   cors,
   path,
   disableHealthCheck,
+  enableGUI,
   onHealthCheck,
   uploads,
 }: ServerRegistration) => {
@@ -118,7 +120,11 @@ server.listen({ http: { port: YOUR_PORT_HERE } });
         );
       }
 
-      if (!server.disableTools && request.method === 'get') {
+      // enableGUI takes precedence over the server tools setting
+      if (
+        (enableGUI || (enableGUI === undefined && !server.disableTools)) &&
+        request.method === 'get'
+      ) {
         //perform more expensive content-type check only if necessary
         const accept = parseAll(request.headers);
         const types = accept.mediaTypes as string[];