diff --git a/packages/plugin-react/CHANGELOG.md b/packages/plugin-react/CHANGELOG.md
index bb5282351..1b9a3e692 100644
--- a/packages/plugin-react/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/packages/plugin-react/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+### Fix `canSkipBabel` not accounting for `babel.overrides` ([#1098](https://github.com/vitejs/vite-plugin-react/pull/1098))
+
+When configuring `babel.overrides` without top-level plugins or presets, Babel was incorrectly skipped. The `canSkipBabel` function now checks for `overrides.length` to ensure override configurations are processed.
+
 ## 5.1.3 (2026-02-02)
 
 ## 5.1.2 (2025-12-08)
diff --git a/packages/plugin-react/src/index.ts b/packages/plugin-react/src/index.ts
index f7d0ffd75..1664117dc 100644
--- a/packages/plugin-react/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/plugin-react/src/index.ts
@@ -567,6 +567,7 @@ function canSkipBabel(
   return !(
     plugins.length ||
     babelOptions.presets.length ||
+    babelOptions.overrides.length ||
     babelOptions.configFile ||
     babelOptions.babelrc
   )