diff --git a/r/src/array_to_vector.cpp b/r/src/array_to_vector.cpp
index f790ab87da6..f0a7af8f29c 100644
--- a/r/src/array_to_vector.cpp
+++ b/r/src/array_to_vector.cpp
@@ -960,6 +960,17 @@ bool ArraysCanFitInteger(ArrayVector arrays) {
   return all_can_fit;
 }
 
+bool GetBoolOption(const std::string& name, bool default_) {
+  SEXP getOption = Rf_install("getOption");
+  cpp11::sexp call = Rf_lang2(getOption, Rf_mkString(name.c_str()));
+  cpp11::sexp res = Rf_eval(call, R_BaseEnv);
+  if (TYPEOF(res) == LGLSXP) {
+    return LOGICAL(res)[0] == TRUE;
+  } else {
+    return default_;
+  }
+}
+
 std::shared_ptr<Converter> Converter::Make(const std::shared_ptr<DataType>& type,
                                            ArrayVector arrays) {
   if (arrays.empty()) {
@@ -1068,8 +1079,8 @@ std::shared_ptr<Converter> Converter::Make(const std::shared_ptr<DataType>& type
       return std::make_shared<arrow::r::Converter_Timestamp<int64_t>>(std::move(arrays));
 
     case Type::INT64:
-      // Prefer integer if it fits
-      if (ArraysCanFitInteger(arrays)) {
+      // Prefer integer if it fits, unless option arrow.int64_downcast is `false`
+      if (GetBoolOption("arrow.int64_downcast", true) && ArraysCanFitInteger(arrays)) {
         return std::make_shared<arrow::r::Converter_Int<arrow::Int64Type>>(
             std::move(arrays));
       } else {
diff --git a/r/src/arrow_cpp11.h b/r/src/arrow_cpp11.h
index 1b69468b3bf..859b0491cd0 100644
--- a/r/src/arrow_cpp11.h
+++ b/r/src/arrow_cpp11.h
@@ -292,6 +292,8 @@ std::vector<T> from_r_list(cpp11::list args) {
   return vec;
 }
 
+bool GetBoolOption(const std::string& name, bool default_);
+
 }  // namespace r
 }  // namespace arrow
 
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-Array.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-Array.R
index d708cb9676f..59c6dd9866a 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-Array.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-Array.R
@@ -749,3 +749,17 @@ test_that("Array$ApproxEquals", {
   expect_true(a$ApproxEquals(b))
   expect_false(a$ApproxEquals(vec))
 })
+
+test_that("auto int64 conversion to int can be disabled (ARROW-10093)", {
+  op <- options(arrow.int64_downcast = FALSE); on.exit(options(op))
+
+  a <- Array$create(1:10, int64())
+  expect_true(inherits(a$as_vector(), "integer64"))
+
+  batch <- RecordBatch$create(x = a)
+  expect_true(inherits(as.data.frame(batch)$x, "integer64"))
+
+  tab <- Table$create(x = a)
+  expect_true(inherits(as.data.frame(batch)$x, "integer64"))
+})
+