diff --git a/enterprise/app/models/enterprise/concerns/contact.rb b/enterprise/app/models/enterprise/concerns/contact.rb
index 4362a915d..910af6e45 100644
--- a/enterprise/app/models/enterprise/concerns/contact.rb
+++ b/enterprise/app/models/enterprise/concerns/contact.rb
@@ -15,13 +15,17 @@ module Enterprise::Concerns::Contact
   def should_associate_company?
     # Only trigger if:
     # 1. Contact has an email
-    # 2. Contact doesn't have a compan yet
+    # 2. Contact doesn't have a company yet
     # 3. Email was just set/changed
     # 4. Email was previously nil (first time getting email)
+    # 5. The account has the Companies feature enabled
+    # Feature check is last so unrelated contact updates short-circuit on the
+    # cheap in-memory guards before touching the account (hot message-ingest path).
     email.present? &&
       company_id.nil? &&
       saved_change_to_email? &&
-      saved_change_to_email.first.nil?
+      saved_change_to_email.first.nil? &&
+      account.feature_enabled?('companies')
   end
 
   def associate_company_from_email
diff --git a/spec/enterprise/models/contact_company_association_spec.rb b/spec/enterprise/models/contact_company_association_spec.rb
index 6ed8af4f6..0930eefb9 100644
--- a/spec/enterprise/models/contact_company_association_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/enterprise/models/contact_company_association_spec.rb
@@ -4,6 +4,26 @@ RSpec.describe Contact, type: :model do
   describe 'company auto-association' do
     let(:account) { create(:account) }
 
+    before { account.enable_features!(:companies) }
+
+    context 'when the companies feature is disabled' do
+      before { account.disable_features!(:companies) }
+
+      it 'does not create or associate a company' do
+        expect do
+          create(:contact, email: 'john@acme.com', account: account)
+        end.not_to change(Company, :count)
+        expect(described_class.last.company).to be_nil
+      end
+
+      it 'preserves a contact-supplied company_name' do
+        contact = create(:contact, email: 'john@acme.com', account: account,
+                                   additional_attributes: { 'company_name' => 'John Personal Co' })
+
+        expect(contact.reload.additional_attributes['company_name']).to eq('John Personal Co')
+      end
+    end
+
     context 'when creating a new contact with business email' do
       it 'automatically creates and associates a company' do
         expect do