diff --git a/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md b/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md
index 078c98e6bf1..086aff122c7 100644
--- a/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@
 
 ### CLI
 * Added the `databricks quickstart` command, a short introduction to the CLI that prints a human-friendly guide interactively and an agent-oriented version when run non-interactively ([#5464](https://github.com/databricks/cli/pull/5464)).
-* `databricks auth login` no longer prompts for workspace selection when logging in to an account console host (`https://accounts.*`). Pass `--workspace-id` explicitly to store a workspace ID on such a profile ([#5504](https://github.com/databricks/cli/pull/5504)).
+* `databricks auth profiles --skip-validate` no longer makes any network calls; the host metadata fetch is skipped along with validation ([#5530](https://github.com/databricks/cli/pull/5530)).
+
 
 ### Bundles
 * Set the default `data_security_mode` to `DATA_SECURITY_MODE_AUTO` in bundle templates ([#5452](https://github.com/databricks/cli/pull/5452)).
diff --git a/acceptance/auth/host-metadata-cache/output.txt b/acceptance/auth/host-metadata-cache/output.txt
index 0b99e9579c8..d059d2bbc4b 100644
--- a/acceptance/auth/host-metadata-cache/output.txt
+++ b/acceptance/auth/host-metadata-cache/output.txt
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
       "name": "cached",
       "host": "[DATABRICKS_URL]",
       "cloud": "aws",
-      "auth_type": "",
-      "valid": false
+      "auth_type": "pat",
+      "valid": true
     }
   ]
 }
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@
       "name": "cached",
       "host": "[DATABRICKS_URL]",
       "cloud": "aws",
-      "auth_type": "",
-      "valid": false
+      "auth_type": "pat",
+      "valid": true
     }
   ]
 }
diff --git a/acceptance/auth/host-metadata-cache/script b/acceptance/auth/host-metadata-cache/script
index f7a5f2fe0f8..dd64d1b98a6 100644
--- a/acceptance/auth/host-metadata-cache/script
+++ b/acceptance/auth/host-metadata-cache/script
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@ sethome "./home"
 export DATABRICKS_CACHE_DIR="$TEST_TMP_DIR/cache"
 
 # Point a profile at the mock server so auth profiles triggers a host metadata
-# fetch. Without a profile the command does nothing and the cache is never read.
+# fetch. Validation must stay on: --skip-validate resolves offline and would
+# never fetch or populate the cache.
 cat > "./home/.databrickscfg" <<EOF
 [cached]
 host = ${DATABRICKS_HOST}
@@ -10,10 +11,10 @@ token = test-token
 EOF
 
 title "First invocation populates the cache\n"
-$CLI auth profiles --skip-validate --output json
+$CLI auth profiles --output json
 
 title "Second invocation should read from the cache\n"
-$CLI auth profiles --skip-validate --output json
+$CLI auth profiles --output json
 
 title "Only one /.well-known/databricks-config request recorded\n"
 print_requests.py //.well-known/databricks-config --get --sort
diff --git a/acceptance/cmd/auth/profiles/output.txt b/acceptance/cmd/auth/profiles/output.txt
index c2d5f743f43..dc06a2f0b01 100644
--- a/acceptance/cmd/auth/profiles/output.txt
+++ b/acceptance/cmd/auth/profiles/output.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 
 === Profiles with workspace_id (JSON output)
-Warn: [hostmetadata] failed to fetch host metadata for https://test.cloud.databricks.com, will skip for 1m0s
 {
   "profiles": [
     {
diff --git a/cmd/auth/profiles.go b/cmd/auth/profiles.go
index 09d52d7da00..8c317293322 100644
--- a/cmd/auth/profiles.go
+++ b/cmd/auth/profiles.go
@@ -43,6 +43,15 @@ func (c *profileMetadata) Load(ctx context.Context, configFilePath string, skipV
 		Profile:           c.Name,
 		DatabricksCliPath: env.Get(ctx, "DATABRICKS_CLI_PATH"),
 	}
+	if skipValidate {
+		// EnsureResolved fetches <host>/.well-known/databricks-config to enrich
+		// the config, so without this stub a skip-validate listing still makes
+		// one network call per profile (and warns when offline). Resolve from
+		// the config file alone; cloud detection falls back to the host pattern.
+		cfg.HostMetadataResolver = func(context.Context, string) (*config.HostMetadata, error) {
+			return nil, nil
+		}
+	}
 	_ = cfg.EnsureResolved()
 	if cfg.IsAws() {
 		c.Cloud = "aws"
diff --git a/cmd/auth/profiles_test.go b/cmd/auth/profiles_test.go
index 59803e210cf..2ebbeed0e60 100644
--- a/cmd/auth/profiles_test.go
+++ b/cmd/auth/profiles_test.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"runtime"
+	"sync/atomic"
 	"testing"
 
 	"github.com/databricks/cli/libs/databrickscfg"
@@ -48,6 +49,35 @@ func TestProfiles(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, "pat", profile.AuthType)
 }
 
+// TestProfileLoadSkipValidateMakesNoRequests guards the --skip-validate
+// contract: EnsureResolved would otherwise fetch /.well-known/databricks-config
+// for every profile, so the handler counts every request it receives.
+func TestProfileLoadSkipValidateMakesNoRequests(t *testing.T) {
+	var requests atomic.Int32
+	server := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		requests.Add(1)
+		w.WriteHeader(http.StatusNotFound)
+	}))
+	t.Cleanup(server.Close)
+
+	dir := t.TempDir()
+	configFile := filepath.Join(dir, ".databrickscfg")
+	t.Setenv("HOME", dir)
+	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
+		t.Setenv("USERPROFILE", dir)
+	}
+
+	content := "[offline-profile]\nhost = " + server.URL + "\ntoken = test-token\n"
+	require.NoError(t, os.WriteFile(configFile, []byte(content), 0o600))
+
+	p := &profileMetadata{Name: "offline-profile", Host: server.URL}
+	p.Load(t.Context(), configFile, true)
+
+	assert.Zero(t, requests.Load(), "expected no network calls with skipValidate")
+	assert.Equal(t, server.URL, p.Host)
+	assert.False(t, p.Valid)
+}
+
 func TestProfilesDefaultMarker(t *testing.T) {
 	ctx := t.Context()
 	dir := t.TempDir()