diff --git a/builtin/credential/github/path_config.go b/builtin/credential/github/path_config.go
index 84c03d3dbb79..707115c567e3 100644
--- a/builtin/credential/github/path_config.go
+++ b/builtin/credential/github/path_config.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
 	"net/url"
+	"os"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
@@ -94,7 +95,8 @@ func (b *backend) pathConfigWrite(ctx context.Context, req *logical.Request, dat
 	}
 
 	if c.OrganizationID == 0 {
-		client, err := b.Client("")
+		githubToken := os.Getenv("VAULT_AUTH_CONFIG_GITHUB_TOKEN")
+		client, err := b.Client(githubToken)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
diff --git a/builtin/credential/github/path_config_test.go b/builtin/credential/github/path_config_test.go
index e8d0cf5fdb39..d59599f32620 100644
--- a/builtin/credential/github/path_config_test.go
+++ b/builtin/credential/github/path_config_test.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/http/httptest"
+	"os"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
@@ -120,6 +121,43 @@ func TestGitHub_WriteReadConfig_OrgID(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, "foo-org", resp.Data["organization"])
 }
 
+// TestGitHub_WriteReadConfig_Token tests that we can successfully read and
+// write the github auth config with a token environment variable
+func TestGitHub_WriteReadConfig_Token(t *testing.T) {
+	b, s := createBackendWithStorage(t)
+	// use a test server to return our mock GH org info
+	ts := setupTestServer(t)
+	defer ts.Close()
+
+	err := os.Setenv("VAULT_AUTH_CONFIG_GITHUB_TOKEN", "foobar")
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+
+	resp, err := b.HandleRequest(context.Background(), &logical.Request{
+		Path:      "config",
+		Operation: logical.UpdateOperation,
+		Data: map[string]interface{}{
+			"organization": "foo-org",
+			"base_url":     ts.URL, // base_url will call the test server
+		},
+		Storage: s,
+	})
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Nil(t, resp)
+	assert.NoError(t, resp.Error())
+
+	// Read the config
+	resp, err = b.HandleRequest(context.Background(), &logical.Request{
+		Path:      "config",
+		Operation: logical.ReadOperation,
+		Storage:   s,
+	})
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.NoError(t, resp.Error())
+
+	// the token should not be returned in the read config response.
+	assert.Nil(t, resp.Data["token"])
+}
+
 // TestGitHub_ErrorNoOrgID tests that an error is returned when we cannot fetch
 // the org ID for the given org name
 func TestGitHub_ErrorNoOrgID(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/changelog/19244.txt b/changelog/19244.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..63a663e9d6e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/19244.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+```release-note:improvement
+auth/github: Allow for an optional Github auth token environment variable to make authenticated requests when fetching org id
+website/docs: Add docs for `VAULT_AUTH_CONFIG_GITHUB_TOKEN` environment variable when writing Github config
+```
diff --git a/website/content/api-docs/auth/github.mdx b/website/content/api-docs/auth/github.mdx
index 289fc736029a..6a83123e0258 100644
--- a/website/content/api-docs/auth/github.mdx
+++ b/website/content/api-docs/auth/github.mdx
@@ -32,6 +32,12 @@ distinction between the `create` and `update` capabilities inside ACL policies.
 - `base_url` `(string: "")` - The API endpoint to use. Useful if you are running
   GitHub Enterprise or an API-compatible authentication server.
 
+### Environment variables
+- `VAULT_AUTH_CONFIG_GITHUB_TOKEN` `(string: "")` - An optional GitHub token used to make
+  authenticated GitHub API requests. This can be useful for bypassing GitHub's
+  rate-limiting during automation flows when the `organization_id` is not provided.
+  We encourage you to provide the `organization_id` instead of relying on this environment variable.
+
 @include 'tokenfields.mdx'
 
 ### Sample Payload