diff --git a/crates/cranelift/Cargo.toml b/crates/cranelift/Cargo.toml
index 18f7df833476..635a4eec91e8 100644
--- a/crates/cranelift/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/cranelift/Cargo.toml
@@ -34,12 +34,6 @@ wasmtime-versioned-export-macros = { workspace = true }
 itertools = "0.12"
 pulley-interpreter = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 
-# On 32-bit platforms where Cranelift currently doesn't have any supported host
-# unconditionally enable the `pulley` feature of the Cranelift backend to ensure
-# that it's possible to run wasm code by default.
-[target.'cfg(target_pointer_width = "32")'.dependencies]
-cranelift-codegen = { workspace = true, features = ['pulley'] }
-
 [features]
 all-arch = ["cranelift-codegen/all-arch"]
 host-arch = ["cranelift-codegen/host-arch"]
diff --git a/crates/wasmtime/Cargo.toml b/crates/wasmtime/Cargo.toml
index 6c5016d980a6..21b1f80daf8b 100644
--- a/crates/wasmtime/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/wasmtime/Cargo.toml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ wasmtime-jit-debug = { workspace = true, features = ["gdb_jit_int", "perf_jitdum
 wasmtime-jit-icache-coherence = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 wasmtime-cache = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 wasmtime-fiber = { workspace = true, optional = true }
-wasmtime-cranelift = { workspace = true, optional = true }
+wasmtime-cranelift = { workspace = true, optional = true, features = ['pulley'] }
 wasmtime-winch = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 wasmtime-component-macro = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 wasmtime-component-util = { workspace = true, optional = true }
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ wasmtime-slab = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 wasmtime-versioned-export-macros = { workspace = true }
 wasmtime-wmemcheck = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 wasmtime-math = { workspace = true }
-pulley-interpreter = { workspace = true, optional = true }
+pulley-interpreter = { workspace = true }
 target-lexicon = { workspace = true }
 wasmparser = { workspace = true }
 wasm-encoder = { workspace = true, optional = true }
@@ -98,14 +98,6 @@ rustix = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 [target.'cfg(target_arch = "s390x")'.dependencies]
 psm = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 
-# On 32-bit platforms where Cranelift currently doesn't have any supported host
-# unconditionally pull in the `pulley-interpreter` crate. Runtime support is
-# enabled via `build.rs` which prints `feature="pulley"` by default here and
-# compilation support, if enabled via the `cranelift` feature, is handled in the
-# `wasmtime-cranelift` crate enabling Pulley on 32-bit platforms.
-[target.'cfg(target_pointer_width = "32")'.dependencies]
-pulley-interpreter = { workspace = true }
-
 [dev-dependencies]
 env_logger = { workspace = true }
 proptest = { workspace = true }
@@ -165,7 +157,12 @@ winch = ["dep:wasmtime-winch", "std"]
 # targets will be available. When paired with the `runtime` feature, the Pulley
 # interpreter will be built into the runtime and you can interpret WebAssembly
 # modules that have been compiled to Pulley bytecode.
-pulley = ["dep:pulley-interpreter", "wasmtime-cranelift?/pulley"]
+pulley = [
+  # Note that this is intentionally empty. This feature is dynamically activated
+  # in `build.rs` as well when the host platform does not have Cranelift support
+  # for example. That means that dependencies for pulley need to be already
+  # activated anyway.
+]
 
 # Enables support for incremental compilation cache to be enabled in `Config`.
 incremental-cache = ["wasmtime-cranelift?/incremental-cache", "std"]
@@ -257,7 +254,7 @@ runtime = [
   "dep:psm",
   "dep:rustix",
   "rustix/mm",
-  "pulley-interpreter?/interp",
+  "pulley-interpreter/interp",
 ]
 
 # Enable support for garbage collection-related things.
@@ -325,7 +322,7 @@ std = [
   'object/std',
   'once_cell',
   'wasmtime-fiber?/std',
-  'pulley-interpreter?/std',
+  'pulley-interpreter/std',
   'wasmtime-math/std',
   # technically this isn't necessary but once you have the standard library you
   # probably want things to go fast in which case you've probably got signal
diff --git a/crates/wasmtime/build.rs b/crates/wasmtime/build.rs
index 6edb8ea8f2d8..d353b69b5228 100644
--- a/crates/wasmtime/build.rs
+++ b/crates/wasmtime/build.rs
@@ -4,15 +4,26 @@ fn main() {
     #[cfg(feature = "runtime")]
     build_c_helpers();
 
-    // Flag pulley as enabled unconditionally on 32-bit targets to ensure that
-    // wasm is runnable by default like it is on other 64-bit native platforms.
-    // Note that this doesn't actually enable the Cargo feature, it just changes
-    // the cfg's passed to the crate, so for example care is still taken in
-    // `Cargo.toml` to handle pulley-specific dependencies on 32-bit platforms.
-    let target_pointer_width = std::env::var("CARGO_CFG_TARGET_POINTER_WIDTH").unwrap();
-    if target_pointer_width == "32" {
-        println!("cargo:rustc-cfg=feature=\"pulley\"");
+    // Determine whether Pulley will be enabled and used for this target.
+    match std::env::var("CARGO_CFG_TARGET_ARCH").unwrap().as_str() {
+        // These targets use Cranelift by default as they have backends in
+        // Cranelift. Pulley can still be used on an opt-in basis, but it's not
+        // otherwise explicitly enabled here.
+        "x86_64" | "riscv64" | "s390x" | "aarch64" => {}
+
+        // All other targets at this time use Pulley by default. That means
+        // that the pulley feature is "enabled" here and the default target is
+        // pulley. Note that by enabling the feature here it doesn't actually
+        // enable the Cargo feature, it just passes a cfg to rustc. That means
+        // that conditional dependencies enabled in `Cargo.toml` (or other
+        // features) by `pulley` aren't activated, which is why the `pulley`
+        // feature of this crate depends on nothing else.
+        _ => {
+            println!("cargo:rustc-cfg=feature=\"pulley\"");
+            println!("cargo:rustc-cfg=default_target_pulley");
+        }
     }
+    println!("cargo:rustc-check-cfg=cfg(default_target_pulley)");
 }
 
 #[cfg(feature = "runtime")]
diff --git a/crates/wasmtime/src/config.rs b/crates/wasmtime/src/config.rs
index 8360a1313429..e12653b5f34a 100644
--- a/crates/wasmtime/src/config.rs
+++ b/crates/wasmtime/src/config.rs
@@ -2059,17 +2059,9 @@ impl Config {
             return target;
         }
 
-        // Without an explicitly configured target the goal is then to select
-        // some default which can reasonably run code on this host. If pulley is
-        // enabled and the host has no support at all in the cranelift/winch
-        // backends then pulley becomes the default target. This means, for
-        // example, that 32-bit platforms will default to running pulley at this
-        // time.
-        let any_compiler_support = cfg!(target_arch = "x86_64")
-            || cfg!(target_arch = "aarch64")
-            || cfg!(target_arch = "riscv64")
-            || cfg!(target_arch = "s390x");
-        if !any_compiler_support && cfg!(feature = "pulley") {
+        // If the `build.rs` script determined that this platform uses pulley by
+        // default, then use Pulley.
+        if cfg!(default_target_pulley) {
             return target_lexicon::Triple::pulley_host();
         }