diff --git a/.changeset/good-cheetahs-wait.md b/.changeset/good-cheetahs-wait.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..dcabe3dd985
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/good-cheetahs-wait.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@smithy/fetch-http-handler": patch
+---
+
+Omit setting cache setting on request init when using default value
diff --git a/packages/fetch-http-handler/src/fetch-http-handler.ts b/packages/fetch-http-handler/src/fetch-http-handler.ts
index 2d24b4dae5c..6f0caac4fdc 100644
--- a/packages/fetch-http-handler/src/fetch-http-handler.ts
+++ b/packages/fetch-http-handler/src/fetch-http-handler.ts
@@ -112,8 +112,12 @@ export class FetchHttpHandler implements HttpHandler<FetchHttpHandlerConfig> {
       headers: new Headers(request.headers),
       method: method,
       credentials,
-      cache: this.config!.cache ?? "default",
     };
+    // cache property is not supported in workerd runtime
+    // TODO: can we feature detect support for cache and not set this property when not supported?
+    if (this.config?.cache) {
+      requestOptions.cache = this.config.cache;
+    }
 
     if (body) {
       requestOptions.duplex = "half";