diff --git a/dnf5/commands/download/download.cpp b/dnf5/commands/download/download.cpp
index 48e3c7c5a9..6c5cd520b0 100644
--- a/dnf5/commands/download/download.cpp
+++ b/dnf5/commands/download/download.cpp
@@ -158,6 +158,7 @@ void DownloadCommand::set_argument_parser() {
     cmd.register_named_arg(resolve);
     cmd.register_named_arg(alldeps);
     create_destdir_option(*this);
+    auto skip_unavailable = std::make_unique<SkipUnavailableOption>(*this);
     cmd.register_named_arg(srpm);
     cmd.register_named_arg(url);
     cmd.register_named_arg(urlprotocol);
@@ -212,6 +213,14 @@ void DownloadCommand::run() {
             pkg_query.filter_arch(std::vector<std::string>(arch_option.begin(), arch_option.end()));
         }
 
+        if (!pkg_query.size() && !ctx.get_base().get_config().get_skip_unavailable_option().get_value()) {
+            // User tried `dnf5 download non-sense` or `dnf download non-sense-wildcard*`
+            throw libdnf5::cli::CommandExitError(
+                1,
+                M_("No package \"{}\" available; You might want to use --skip-unavailable option."),
+                option->get_value());
+        }
+
         for (const auto & pkg : pkg_query) {
             download_pkgs.insert(create_nevra_pkg_pair(pkg));
 
diff --git a/doc/commands/download.8.rst b/doc/commands/download.8.rst
index 07a67e398f..bd0e562332 100644
--- a/doc/commands/download.8.rst
+++ b/doc/commands/download.8.rst
@@ -50,6 +50,9 @@ Options
 ``--destdir=<path>``
     | Set directory used for downloading packages to. Default location is to the current working directory.
 
+``--skip-unavailable``
+    | Allow skipping packages that are not available in repositories. All available packages will be downloaded.
+
 ``--srpm``
     | Download the source rpm. Enables source repositories of all enabled binary repositories.