diff --git a/api/server/services/Config/loadCustomConfig.js b/api/server/services/Config/loadCustomConfig.js
index c0415674b9..db25049957 100644
--- a/api/server/services/Config/loadCustomConfig.js
+++ b/api/server/services/Config/loadCustomConfig.js
@@ -85,26 +85,32 @@ Please specify a correct \`imageOutputType\` value (case-sensitive).
     let errorMessage = `Invalid custom config file at ${configPath}:
 ${JSON.stringify(result.error, null, 2)}`;
 
-    if (i === 0) {
-      logger.error(errorMessage);
-      const speechError = result.error.errors.find(
-        (err) =>
-          err.code === 'unrecognized_keys' &&
-          (err.message?.includes('stt') || err.message?.includes('tts')),
-      );
+    logger.error(errorMessage);
+    const speechError = result.error.errors.find(
+      (err) =>
+        err.code === 'unrecognized_keys' &&
+        (err.message?.includes('stt') || err.message?.includes('tts')),
+    );
 
-      if (speechError) {
-        logger.warn(`
+    if (speechError) {
+      logger.warn(`
 The Speech-to-text and Text-to-speech configuration format has recently changed.
 If you're getting this error, please refer to the latest documentation:
 
 https://www.librechat.ai/docs/configuration/stt_tts`);
-      }
-
-      i++;
     }
 
-    return null;
+    if (process.env.CONFIG_BYPASS_VALIDATION === 'true') {
+      logger.warn(
+        'CONFIG_BYPASS_VALIDATION is enabled. Continuing with default configuration despite validation errors.',
+      );
+      return null;
+    }
+
+    logger.error(
+      'Exiting due to invalid configuration. Set CONFIG_BYPASS_VALIDATION=true to bypass this check.',
+    );
+    process.exit(1);
   } else {
     if (printConfig) {
       logger.info('Custom config file loaded:');
diff --git a/api/server/services/Config/loadCustomConfig.spec.js b/api/server/services/Config/loadCustomConfig.spec.js
index 4f2006a053..f7f11dc8f6 100644
--- a/api/server/services/Config/loadCustomConfig.spec.js
+++ b/api/server/services/Config/loadCustomConfig.spec.js
@@ -50,8 +50,25 @@ const { logger } = require('@librechat/data-schemas');
 const loadCustomConfig = require('./loadCustomConfig');
 
 describe('loadCustomConfig', () => {
+  const originalExit = process.exit;
+  const mockExit = jest.fn((code) => {
+    throw new Error(`process.exit called with "${code}"`);
+  });
+
+  beforeAll(() => {
+    process.exit = mockExit;
+  });
+
+  afterAll(() => {
+    process.exit = originalExit;
+  });
+
   beforeEach(() => {
     jest.resetAllMocks();
+    // Re-apply the exit mock implementation after resetAllMocks
+    mockExit.mockImplementation((code) => {
+      throw new Error(`process.exit called with "${code}"`);
+    });
     delete process.env.CONFIG_PATH;
   });
 
@@ -94,20 +111,38 @@ describe('loadCustomConfig', () => {
   it('should return null and log if config schema validation fails', async () => {
     const invalidConfig = { invalidField: true };
     process.env.CONFIG_PATH = 'invalidConfig.yaml';
+    process.env.CONFIG_BYPASS_VALIDATION = 'true';
     loadYaml.mockReturnValueOnce(invalidConfig);
 
     const result = await loadCustomConfig();
 
     expect(result).toBeNull();
+    expect(logger.warn).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      'CONFIG_BYPASS_VALIDATION is enabled. Continuing with default configuration despite validation errors.',
+    );
+    delete process.env.CONFIG_BYPASS_VALIDATION;
+  });
+
+  it('should call process.exit(1) when config validation fails without bypass', async () => {
+    const invalidConfig = { invalidField: true };
+    process.env.CONFIG_PATH = 'invalidConfig.yaml';
+    loadYaml.mockReturnValueOnce(invalidConfig);
+
+    await expect(loadCustomConfig()).rejects.toThrow('process.exit called with "1"');
+    expect(logger.error).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      'Exiting due to invalid configuration. Set CONFIG_BYPASS_VALIDATION=true to bypass this check.',
+    );
   });
 
   it('should handle and return null on YAML parse error for a string response from remote', async () => {
     process.env.CONFIG_PATH = 'http://example.com/config.yaml';
+    process.env.CONFIG_BYPASS_VALIDATION = 'true';
     axios.get.mockResolvedValue({ data: 'invalidYAMLContent' });
 
     const result = await loadCustomConfig();
 
     expect(result).toBeNull();
+    delete process.env.CONFIG_BYPASS_VALIDATION;
   });
 
   it('should return the custom config object for a valid remote config file', async () => {