diff --git a/hack/check-capi-version.sh b/hack/check-capi-version.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..ae0f68f18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/check-capi-version.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Copyright 2025 The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+#
+# Bash Strict Mode: https://github.com/guettli/bash-strict-mode
+trap 'echo -e "\n🤷 🚨 🔥 Warning: A command has failed. Exiting the script. Line was ($0:$LINENO): $(sed -n "${LINENO}p" "$0" 2>/dev/null || true) 🔥 🚨 🤷 "; exit 3' ERR
+set -Eeuo pipefail
+
+# Get the directory of the script
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
+REPO_ROOT="$(cd "${SCRIPT_DIR}/.." && pwd)"
+
+cd "${REPO_ROOT}"
+
+# Extract the desired CAPI version from go.mod
+DESIRED_VERSION=$(grep -E 'sigs.k8s.io/cluster-api v' go.mod | grep -v '/test' | awk '{print $2}')
+
+if [[ -z "${DESIRED_VERSION}" ]]; then
+    echo "❌ Could not find cluster-api version in go.mod"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "✓ Desired CAPI version from go.mod: ${DESIRED_VERSION}"
+echo ""
+
+# Find all non-documentation files with cluster-api/clusterctl version mismatches
+# Docs are excluded as they can contain example output that doesn't need to be in sync
+if git ls-files | grep -v vendor | grep -v '\.md$' | xargs grep -nH -E '(cluster-api|clusterctl|capi_version)' 2>/dev/null | grep -E 'v1\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | grep -v "${DESIRED_VERSION}"; then
+    echo ""
+    echo "❌ Version mismatches found! Expected: ${DESIRED_VERSION}"
+    echo "Please update the mismatched files to use the version from go.mod"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "✅ All CAPI versions are in sync with go.mod (${DESIRED_VERSION})"