diff --git a/esphome/components/mqtt/mqtt_client.cpp b/esphome/components/mqtt/mqtt_client.cpp
index 6f63935e6e..923762aea4 100644
--- a/esphome/components/mqtt/mqtt_client.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/mqtt/mqtt_client.cpp
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ void MQTTClientComponent::dump_config() {
     ESP_LOGCONFIG(TAG, "  Availability: '%s'", this->availability_.topic.c_str());
   }
 }
-bool MQTTClientComponent::can_proceed() { return this->is_connected(); }
+bool MQTTClientComponent::can_proceed() { return network::is_disabled() || this->is_connected(); }
 
 void MQTTClientComponent::start_dnslookup_() {
   for (auto &subscription : this->subscriptions_) {
diff --git a/esphome/components/network/util.cpp b/esphome/components/network/util.cpp
index 941102d6c1..109c2947ce 100644
--- a/esphome/components/network/util.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/network/util.cpp
@@ -29,6 +29,14 @@ bool is_connected() {
   return false;
 }
 
+bool is_disabled() {
+#ifdef USE_WIFI
+  if (wifi::global_wifi_component != nullptr)
+    return wifi::global_wifi_component->is_disabled();
+#endif
+  return false;
+}
+
 network::IPAddress get_ip_address() {
 #ifdef USE_ETHERNET
   if (ethernet::global_eth_component != nullptr)
diff --git a/esphome/components/network/util.h b/esphome/components/network/util.h
index f248d5cbf4..0322f19215 100644
--- a/esphome/components/network/util.h
+++ b/esphome/components/network/util.h
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ namespace network {
 
 /// Return whether the node is connected to the network (through wifi, eth, ...)
 bool is_connected();
+/// Return whether the network is disabled (only wifi for now)
+bool is_disabled();
 /// Get the active network hostname
 std::string get_use_address();
 IPAddress get_ip_address();