diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2025-12-24-11-39-59.gh-issue-143135.3d5ovx.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2025-12-24-11-39-59.gh-issue-143135.3d5ovx.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..2ff08b44355704
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2025-12-24-11-39-59.gh-issue-143135.3d5ovx.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Set :data:`sys.flags.inspect` to ``1`` when :envvar:`PYTHONINSPECT` is ``0``.
+Previously, it was set to ``0`` in this case.
diff --git a/Python/initconfig.c b/Python/initconfig.c
index bdd223213f5dd6..2dce878770db4a 100644
--- a/Python/initconfig.c
+++ b/Python/initconfig.c
@@ -1845,7 +1845,9 @@ config_read_env_vars(PyConfig *config)
     _Py_get_env_flag(use_env, &config->parser_debug, "PYTHONDEBUG");
     _Py_get_env_flag(use_env, &config->verbose, "PYTHONVERBOSE");
     _Py_get_env_flag(use_env, &config->optimization_level, "PYTHONOPTIMIZE");
-    _Py_get_env_flag(use_env, &config->inspect, "PYTHONINSPECT");
+    if (!config->inspect && _Py_GetEnv(use_env, "PYTHONINSPECT")) {
+        config->inspect = 1;
+    }
 
     int dont_write_bytecode = 0;
     _Py_get_env_flag(use_env, &dont_write_bytecode, "PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE");