diff --git a/configure b/configure
index f3e7572afb..cc8e1ed5b8 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -516,6 +516,25 @@ case "$cpu" in
     ;;
 esac
 
+# Now we have our CPU_CFLAGS we can check if we are targeting a 32 or
+# 64 bit host.
+
+check_64bit_host() {
+cat > $TMPC <<EOF
+#if __SIZEOF_POINTER__ != 8
+#error not 64 bit system
+#endif
+int main(void) { return 0; }
+EOF
+  compile_object "$1"
+}
+
+if check_64bit_host "$CPU_CFLAGS"; then
+    host_bits=64
+else
+    host_bits=32
+fi
+
 if test -n "$host_arch" && {
     ! test -d "$source_path/linux-user/include/host/$host_arch" ||
     ! test -d "$source_path/common-user/host/$host_arch"; }; then
@@ -1028,7 +1047,7 @@ if test "$static" = "yes" ; then
   fi
   plugins="no"
 fi
-if test "$plugins" != "no"; then
+if test "$plugins" != "no" && test $host_bits -eq 64; then
   plugins=yes
   subdirs="$subdirs contrib/plugins"
 fi
diff --git a/docs/about/deprecated.rst b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
index ed31d4b0b2..809b2b9b81 100644
--- a/docs/about/deprecated.rst
+++ b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
@@ -184,6 +184,17 @@ be an effective use of its limited resources, and thus intends to discontinue
 it. Since all recent x86 hardware from the past >10 years is capable of the
 64-bit x86 extensions, a corresponding 64-bit OS should be used instead.
 
+TCG Plugin support not enabled by default on 32-bit hosts (since 9.2)
+'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
+
+While it is still possible to enable TCG plugin support for 32-bit
+hosts there are a number of potential pitfalls when instrumenting
+64-bit guests. The plugin APIs typically pass most addresses as
+uint64_t but practices like encoding that address in a host pointer
+for passing as user-data will lose data. As most software analysis
+benefits from having plenty of host memory it seems reasonable to
+encourage users to use 64 bit builds of QEMU for analysis work
+whatever targets they are instrumenting.
 
 System emulator CPUs
 --------------------