diff --git a/components/dashboard/src/data/featureflag-query.ts b/components/dashboard/src/data/featureflag-query.ts
index 84502dcb51d9a8..3c6cfdf34d9c31 100644
--- a/components/dashboard/src/data/featureflag-query.ts
+++ b/components/dashboard/src/data/featureflag-query.ts
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ const featureFlags = {
     enableDedicatedOnboardingFlow: false,
     usageDownload: false,
     phoneVerificationByCall: false,
+    doRetryUserLoader: true,
 };
 
 export const useFeatureFlag = (featureFlag: keyof typeof featureFlags) => {
diff --git a/components/dashboard/src/hooks/use-user-loader.ts b/components/dashboard/src/hooks/use-user-loader.ts
index 0c2724f19092f8..918b4346803b38 100644
--- a/components/dashboard/src/hooks/use-user-loader.ts
+++ b/components/dashboard/src/hooks/use-user-loader.ts
@@ -11,9 +11,12 @@ import { trackLocation } from "../Analytics";
 import { refreshSearchData } from "../components/RepositoryFinder";
 import { useQuery } from "@tanstack/react-query";
 import { noPersistence } from "../data/setup";
+import { ErrorCodes } from "@gitpod/gitpod-protocol/lib/messaging/error";
+import { useFeatureFlag } from "../data/featureflag-query";
 
 export const useUserLoader = () => {
     const { user, setUser } = useContext(UserContext);
+    const doRetryUserLoader = useFeatureFlag("doRetryUserLoader");
 
     // For now, we're using the user context to store the user, but letting react-query handle the loading
     // In the future, we should remove the user context and use react-query to access the user
@@ -27,8 +30,15 @@ export const useUserLoader = () => {
         // We'll let an ErrorBoundary catch the error
         useErrorBoundary: true,
         // It's important we don't retry as we want to show the login screen as quickly as possible if a 401
-        // TODO: In the future we can consider retrying for non 401 errors
-        retry: false,
+        retry: (_failureCount: number, error: Error & { code?: number }) => {
+            if (!doRetryUserLoader) {
+                return false;
+            }
+            return error.code !== ErrorCodes.NOT_AUTHENTICATED;
+        },
+        // docs: https://tanstack.com/query/v4/docs/react/guides/query-retries
+        // backoff by doubling, max. 10s
+        retryDelay: (attemptIndex) => Math.min(1000 * 2 ** attemptIndex, 10000),
         cacheTime: 1000 * 60 * 60 * 1, // 1 hour
         staleTime: 1000 * 60 * 60 * 1, // 1 hour
         onSuccess: (loadedUser) => {