diff --git a/controllers/rate_limiting_wasmplugin_controller.go b/controllers/rate_limiting_wasmplugin_controller.go
index 393e50911..640b7aebf 100644
--- a/controllers/rate_limiting_wasmplugin_controller.go
+++ b/controllers/rate_limiting_wasmplugin_controller.go
@@ -343,6 +343,16 @@ func (r *RateLimitingWASMPluginReconciler) routeFromRLP(ctx context.Context, t *
 // to prevent creating the same index field multiple times, the function is declared private to be
 // called only by this controller
 func addHTTPRouteByGatewayIndexer(mgr ctrl.Manager, baseLogger logr.Logger) error {
+	ok, err := kuadrantgatewayapi.IsGatewayAPIInstalled(mgr.GetRESTMapper())
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	if !ok {
+		baseLogger.Info("GatewayAPI CRDs not found. Disabling HTTPRoute indexer")
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	if err := mgr.GetFieldIndexer().IndexField(context.Background(), &gatewayapiv1.HTTPRoute{}, HTTPRouteGatewayParentField, func(rawObj client.Object) []string {
 		// grab the route object, extract the parents
 		route, assertionOk := rawObj.(*gatewayapiv1.HTTPRoute)
diff --git a/pkg/library/gatewayapi/utils.go b/pkg/library/gatewayapi/utils.go
index f9a1b6487..30f6c6f21 100644
--- a/pkg/library/gatewayapi/utils.go
+++ b/pkg/library/gatewayapi/utils.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/meta"
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema"
 	"k8s.io/utils/ptr"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client"
 	gatewayapiv1 "sigs.k8s.io/gateway-api/apis/v1"
@@ -148,3 +149,20 @@ func FilterValidSubdomains(domains, subdomains []gatewayapiv1.Hostname) []gatewa
 	}
 	return arr
 }
+
+func IsGatewayAPIInstalled(restMapper meta.RESTMapper) (bool, error) {
+	_, err := restMapper.RESTMapping(
+		schema.GroupKind{Group: gatewayapiv1.GroupName, Kind: "HTTPRoute"},
+		gatewayapiv1.SchemeGroupVersion.Version,
+	)
+
+	if err == nil {
+		return true, nil
+	}
+
+	if meta.IsNoMatchError(err) {
+		return false, nil
+	}
+
+	return false, err
+}