diff --git a/plugins/php.json b/plugins/php.json
index 3af465ad1d4..48623bd5f4b 100644
--- a/plugins/php.json
+++ b/plugins/php.json
@@ -11,11 +11,13 @@
     "PHPFPM_ERROR_LOG_FILE": "{{ .Virtenv }}/php-fpm.log",
     "PHPFPM_PID_FILE": "{{ .Virtenv }}/php-fpm.pid",
     "PHPFPM_PORT": "8082",
-    "PHPRC": "{{ .DevboxDir }}"
+    "PHPRC": "{{ .DevboxDir }}",
+    "PHPFPM_SESSIONDIR": "{{ .Virtenv }}/sessions"
   },
   "create_files": {
     "{{ .DevboxDir }}/php-fpm.conf": "php/php-fpm.conf",
     "{{ .DevboxDir }}/php.ini": "php/php.ini",
+    "{{ .Virtenv }}/sessions": "",
     "{{ .Virtenv }}/process-compose.yaml": "php/process-compose.yaml",
     "{{ .Virtenv }}/flake/flake.nix": "php/flake.nix"
   }
diff --git a/plugins/php/php.ini b/plugins/php/php.ini
index b4626d503ab..a347d1cf01c 100644
--- a/plugins/php/php.ini
+++ b/plugins/php/php.ini
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 [php]
 
+; Sessions are persisted to .devbox/virtenv/php/sessions/ by default
+session.save_path = ${PHPFPM_SESSIONDIR}
+
 ; Put your php.ini directives here. For the latest default php.ini file, see https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/php.ini-production
 
 ; memory_limit = 128M