diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/manpages/brew.1.md.erb b/Library/Homebrew/manpages/brew.1.md.erb
index a2d916ee74535..87897ca4e6ef3 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/manpages/brew.1.md.erb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/manpages/brew.1.md.erb
@@ -158,6 +158,9 @@ Note that environment variables must have a value set to be detected. For exampl
   * `HOMEBREW_CURL_VERBOSE`:
     If set, Homebrew will pass `--verbose` when invoking `curl`(1).
 
+  * `HOMEBREW_CURL_RETRIES`:
+    If set, Homebrew will pass the given retry count to `--retry` when invoking `curl`(1).
+
   * `HOMEBREW_DEBUG`:
     If set, any commands that can emit debugging information will do so.
 
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/test/utils/curl_spec.rb b/Library/Homebrew/test/utils/curl_spec.rb
index a6973aa19292c..baab4d4bdc667 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/test/utils/curl_spec.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/test/utils/curl_spec.rb
@@ -13,5 +13,10 @@
       ENV["HOMEBREW_CURLRC"] = "1"
       expect(curl_args("foo").first).not_to eq("-q")
     end
+
+    it "returns --retry when HOMEBREW_CURL_RETRIES is set" do
+      ENV["HOMEBREW_CURL_RETRIES"] = "3"
+      expect(curl_args("foo").join(" ")).to include("--retry 3")
+    end
   end
 end
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils/curl.rb b/Library/Homebrew/utils/curl.rb
index d801dce907521..6bd2333bd328b 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/utils/curl.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils/curl.rb
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ def curl_args(*extra_args, show_output: false, user_agent: :default)
     args << "--silent" unless $stdout.tty?
   end
 
+  args << "--retry" << ENV["HOMEBREW_CURL_RETRIES"] if ENV["HOMEBREW_CURL_RETRIES"]
+
   args + extra_args
 end
 
diff --git a/docs/Manpage.md b/docs/Manpage.md
index 149d8743a08eb..ec53fb1924d37 100644
--- a/docs/Manpage.md
+++ b/docs/Manpage.md
@@ -1045,6 +1045,9 @@ Note that environment variables must have a value set to be detected. For exampl
   * `HOMEBREW_CURL_VERBOSE`:
     If set, Homebrew will pass `--verbose` when invoking `curl`(1).
 
+  * `HOMEBREW_CURL_RETRIES`:
+    If set, Homebrew will pass the given retry count to `--retry` when invoking `curl`(1).
+
   * `HOMEBREW_DEBUG`:
     If set, any commands that can emit debugging information will do so.
 
diff --git a/manpages/brew.1 b/manpages/brew.1
index fc624acea733f..5124ebc663028 100644
--- a/manpages/brew.1
+++ b/manpages/brew.1
@@ -1278,6 +1278,10 @@ If set, Homebrew will not pass \fB\-q\fR when invoking \fBcurl\fR(1) (which disa
 If set, Homebrew will pass \fB\-\-verbose\fR when invoking \fBcurl\fR(1)\.
 .
 .TP
+\fBHOMEBREW_CURL_RETRIES\fR
+If set, Homebrew will pass the given retry count to \fB\-\-retry\fR when invoking \fBcurl\fR(1)\.
+.
+.TP
 \fBHOMEBREW_DEBUG\fR
 If set, any commands that can emit debugging information will do so\.
 .