diff --git a/docs/source/api-documentation.rst b/docs/source/api-documentation.rst
index 35fdb291..49869b65 100644
--- a/docs/source/api-documentation.rst
+++ b/docs/source/api-documentation.rst
@@ -10,6 +10,10 @@ To connect to a InfluxDB, you must create a
 connects to InfluxDB on ``localhost`` with the default
 ports. The below instantiation statements are all equivalent::
 
+    # Set INFLUXDB_NO_DATAFRAME_CLIENT to skip the expensive DataFrameClient
+    # import in cases where you only need the basic InfluxDBClient.
+    os.environ["INFLUXDB_NO_DATAFRAME_CLIENT"] = "1"
+
     from influxdb import InfluxDBClient
 
     # using Http
diff --git a/examples/tutorial.py b/examples/tutorial.py
index 12cd49c1..dcd20c8d 100644
--- a/examples/tutorial.py
+++ b/examples/tutorial.py
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 
 import argparse
 
+import os
+os.environ["INFLUXDB_NO_DATAFRAME_CLIENT"] = "1"
 from influxdb import InfluxDBClient
 
 
diff --git a/influxdb/__init__.py b/influxdb/__init__.py
index 56f2f619..6cd02f48 100644
--- a/influxdb/__init__.py
+++ b/influxdb/__init__.py
@@ -6,16 +6,21 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
+import os
+
 from .client import InfluxDBClient
-from .dataframe_client import DataFrameClient
 from .helper import SeriesHelper
 
 
 __all__ = [
     'InfluxDBClient',
-    'DataFrameClient',
     'SeriesHelper',
 ]
 
+NO_DATAFRAME_CLIENT = os.environ.get("INFLUXDB_NO_DATAFRAME_CLIENT", "0")
+if NO_DATAFRAME_CLIENT.lower() not in ("1", "true"):
+    from .dataframe_client import DataFrameClient  # noqa: F401 unused import
+    __all__.append("DataFrameClient")
+
 
 __version__ = '5.3.0'