diff --git a/ci/docker/linux-apt-python-313-freethreading.dockerfile b/ci/docker/linux-apt-python-313-freethreading.dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..f5505e67f00bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/docker/linux-apt-python-313-freethreading.dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+ARG base
+FROM ${base}
+
+RUN apt-get update -y -q && \
+    apt install -y -q --no-install-recommends software-properties-common gpg-agent && \
+    add-apt-repository -y ppa:deadsnakes/ppa && \
+    apt-get update -y -q && \
+    apt install -y -q --no-install-recommends python3.13-dev python3.13-nogil python3.13-venv && \
+    apt-get clean && \
+    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists*
+
+COPY python/requirements-build.txt \
+     python/requirements-test.txt \
+     /arrow/python/
+
+ENV ARROW_PYTHON_VENV /arrow-dev
+RUN python3.13t -m venv ${ARROW_PYTHON_VENV}
+RUN ${ARROW_PYTHON_VENV}/bin/python -m pip install -U pip setuptools wheel
+RUN ${ARROW_PYTHON_VENV}/bin/python -m pip install \
+      --pre \
+      --prefer-binary \
+      --extra-index-url "https://pypi.anaconda.org/scientific-python-nightly-wheels/simple" \
+      -r arrow/python/requirements-build.txt \
+      -r arrow/python/requirements-test.txt
+
+# We want to run the PyArrow test suite with the GIL disabled, but cffi
+# (more precisely, the `_cffi_backend` module) currently doesn't declare
+# itself safe to run without the GIL.
+# Therefore set PYTHON_GIL to 0.
+ENV ARROW_ACERO=ON \
+    ARROW_BUILD_STATIC=OFF \
+    ARROW_BUILD_TESTS=OFF \
+    ARROW_BUILD_UTILITIES=OFF \
+    ARROW_COMPUTE=ON \
+    ARROW_CSV=ON \
+    ARROW_DATASET=ON \
+    ARROW_FILESYSTEM=ON \
+    ARROW_GDB=ON \
+    ARROW_HDFS=ON \
+    ARROW_JSON=ON \
+    ARROW_USE_GLOG=OFF \
+    PYTHON_GIL=0
diff --git a/dev/tasks/tasks.yml b/dev/tasks/tasks.yml
index 9ded6ee41ab4b..c1c15a3ff73fd 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/tasks.yml
+++ b/dev/tasks/tasks.yml
@@ -1257,6 +1257,14 @@ tasks:
         PYTHON: "3.10"
       image: conda-python-cython2
 
+  test-ubuntu-22.04-python-313-freethreading:
+    ci: github
+    template: docker-tests/github.linux.yml
+    params:
+      env:
+        UBUNTU: 22.04
+      image: ubuntu-python-313-freethreading
+
   test-debian-12-python-3-amd64:
     ci: github
     template: docker-tests/github.linux.yml
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 36cf150f25f39..8721eef524a19 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -149,6 +149,7 @@ x-hierarchy:
     - ubuntu-lint
     - ubuntu-python
     - ubuntu-python-sdist-test
+    - ubuntu-python-313-freethreading
     - ubuntu-r
     - ubuntu-r-only-r
   - ubuntu-cpp-bundled
@@ -1085,6 +1086,32 @@ services:
         /arrow/ci/scripts/cpp_build.sh /arrow /build &&
         /arrow/ci/scripts/python_sdist_test.sh /arrow"
 
+  ############################ Python free-threading ##########################
+
+  ubuntu-python-313-freethreading:
+    # Usage:
+    #   docker-compose build ubuntu-cpp
+    #   docker-compose build ubuntu-python-313-freethreading
+    #   docker-compose run --rm ubuntu-python-313-freethreading
+    # Parameters:
+    #   ARCH: amd64, arm64v8, ...
+    #   UBUNTU: 20.04, 22.04, 24.04
+    image: ${REPO}:${ARCH}-ubuntu-${UBUNTU}-python-313-freethreading
+    build:
+      context: .
+      dockerfile: ci/docker/linux-apt-python-313-freethreading.dockerfile
+      cache_from:
+        - ${REPO}:${ARCH}-ubuntu-${UBUNTU}-python-313-freethreading
+      args:
+        base: ${REPO}:${ARCH}-ubuntu-${UBUNTU}-cpp
+    shm_size: *shm-size
+    environment:
+      <<: [*common, *ccache]
+      # Bundled build of OpenTelemetry needs a git client
+      ARROW_WITH_OPENTELEMETRY: "OFF"
+    volumes: *ubuntu-volumes
+    command: *python-command
+
   ############################ Python wheels ##################################
 
   # See available versions at:
diff --git a/python/CMakeLists.txt b/python/CMakeLists.txt
index eda4ff4ca5f07..912719b20f0e4 100644
--- a/python/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/python/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -21,6 +21,13 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
 project(pyarrow)
 
+# This is needed for 3.13 free-threading. CMake used to add Python
+# include directories with `-isystem`, which led to some Python-internal
+# includes to resolve to normal 3.13 includes (cause -isystem includes
+# are searched after system directories), instead of 3.13-freethreading,
+# which in turn meant that Py_GIL_DISABLED was not set.
+set(CMAKE_NO_SYSTEM_FROM_IMPORTED ON)
+
 set(PYARROW_VERSION "18.0.0-SNAPSHOT")
 string(REGEX MATCH "^[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+" PYARROW_BASE_VERSION "${PYARROW_VERSION}")