diff --git a/packages/plugin-react/README.md b/packages/plugin-react/README.md
index af7a2d54..e668f02a 100644
--- a/packages/plugin-react/README.md
+++ b/packages/plugin-react/README.md
@@ -36,7 +36,19 @@ export default defineConfig({
 })
 ```
 
-> `node_modules` are never processed by this plugin (but esbuild will)
+> [!NOTE]
+> `node_modules` are not processed by this plugin by default (unlike esbuild), regardless of the `include` option. If you want to include them, you can set the `excludeNodeModules` option to `false`.
+
+### excludeNodeModules
+
+By default, the plugin excludes `node_modules` from being processed. If you want to include them, you can set this option to `false`:
+
+```js
+react({ excludeNodeModules: false })
+```
+
+> [!NOTE]
+> Including `node_modules` can slow down the development server, so use this option with caution.
 
 ### jsxImportSource
 
diff --git a/packages/plugin-react/src/index.ts b/packages/plugin-react/src/index.ts
index 8103e2f2..0c819d17 100644
--- a/packages/plugin-react/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/plugin-react/src/index.ts
@@ -37,6 +37,13 @@ async function loadBabel() {
 export interface Options {
   include?: string | RegExp | Array<string | RegExp>
   exclude?: string | RegExp | Array<string | RegExp>
+
+  /**
+   * Whether to exclude `node_modules` from being processed.
+   * @default true
+   */
+  excludeNodeModules?: boolean
+
   /**
    * Control where the JSX factory is imported from.
    * https://esbuild.github.io/api/#jsx-import-source
@@ -113,6 +120,7 @@ const tsRE = /\.tsx?$/
 export default function viteReact(opts: Options = {}): PluginOption[] {
   const include = opts.include ?? defaultIncludeRE
   const exclude = opts.exclude
+  const excludeNodeModules = opts.excludeNodeModules ?? true
   const filter = createFilter(include, exclude)
 
   const jsxImportSource = opts.jsxImportSource ?? 'react'
@@ -225,12 +233,12 @@ export default function viteReact(opts: Options = {}): PluginOption[] {
             ...(exclude
               ? makeIdFiltersToMatchWithQuery(ensureArray(exclude))
               : []),
-            /\/node_modules\//,
+            ...(excludeNodeModules ? [/\/node_modules\//] : []),
           ],
         },
       },
       async handler(code, id, options) {
-        if (id.includes('/node_modules/')) return
+        if (excludeNodeModules && id.includes('/node_modules/')) return
 
         const [filepath] = id.split('?')
         if (!filter(filepath)) return