diff --git a/spanner/client.go b/spanner/client.go
index 1e21f5934029..6e74dcbe727a 100644
--- a/spanner/client.go
+++ b/spanner/client.go
@@ -591,11 +591,11 @@ func allClientOpts(numChannels int, compression string, userOpts ...option.Clien
 	clientDefaultOpts := []option.ClientOption{
 		option.WithGRPCConnectionPool(numChannels),
 		option.WithUserAgent(fmt.Sprintf("spanner-go/v%s", internal.Version)),
-		internaloption.AllowNonDefaultServiceAccount(true),
 		option.WithGRPCDialOption(grpc.WithChainUnaryInterceptor(addNativeMetricsInterceptor()...)),
 		option.WithGRPCDialOption(grpc.WithChainStreamInterceptor(addStreamNativeMetricsInterceptor()...)),
 	}
 	if enableDirectPathXds, _ := strconv.ParseBool(os.Getenv("GOOGLE_SPANNER_ENABLE_DIRECT_ACCESS")); enableDirectPathXds {
+		clientDefaultOpts = append(clientDefaultOpts, internaloption.AllowNonDefaultServiceAccount(true))
 		clientDefaultOpts = append(clientDefaultOpts, internaloption.EnableDirectPath(true), internaloption.EnableDirectPathXds())
 	}
 	if compression == "gzip" {