diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/cudnn/generic.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/cudnn/generic.nix
index 566a17c61472..d9c19e6790c6 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/cudnn/generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/cudnn/generic.nix
@@ -8,6 +8,14 @@
 , cudatoolkit
 , fetchurl
 , addOpenGLRunpath
+, # The distributed version of CUDNN includes both dynamically liked .so files,
+  # as well as statically linked .a files.  However, CUDNN is quite large
+  # (multiple gigabytes), so you can save some space in your nix store by
+  # removing the statically linked libraries if you are not using them.
+  #
+  # Setting this to true removes the statically linked .a files.
+  # Setting this to false keeps these statically linked .a files.
+  removeStatic ? false
 }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
@@ -23,6 +31,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
   nativeBuildInputs = [ addOpenGLRunpath ];
 
   installPhase = ''
+    runHook preInstall
+
     function fixRunPath {
       p=$(patchelf --print-rpath $1)
       patchelf --set-rpath "''${p:+$p:}${lib.makeLibraryPath [ stdenv.cc.cc ]}:\$ORIGIN/" $1
@@ -35,6 +45,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
     mkdir -p $out
     cp -a include $out/include
     cp -a lib64 $out/lib64
+  '' + lib.optionalString removeStatic ''
+    rm -f $out/lib64/*.a
+  '' + ''
+    runHook postInstall
   '';
 
   # Set RUNPATH so that libcuda in /run/opengl-driver(-32)/lib can be found.