diff --git a/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/antora/modules/gradle-plugin/examples/aot/apply-aot-plugin.gradle b/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/antora/modules/gradle-plugin/examples/aot/apply-aot-plugin.gradle
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..89d257ab1cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/antora/modules/gradle-plugin/examples/aot/apply-aot-plugin.gradle
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+plugins {
+	id 'org.springframework.boot' version '{version-spring-boot}'
+	id 'java'
+}
+
+apply plugin: 'org.springframework.boot.aot'
diff --git a/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/antora/modules/gradle-plugin/examples/aot/apply-aot-plugin.gradle.kts b/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/antora/modules/gradle-plugin/examples/aot/apply-aot-plugin.gradle.kts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5a1a0884e26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/antora/modules/gradle-plugin/examples/aot/apply-aot-plugin.gradle.kts
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+plugins {
+	id("org.springframework.boot") version "{version-spring-boot}"
+	java
+}
+
+apply(plugin = "org.springframework.boot.aot")
diff --git a/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/antora/modules/gradle-plugin/pages/aot.adoc b/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/antora/modules/gradle-plugin/pages/aot.adoc
index ee631e308f7..d1e40fae0ba 100644
--- a/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/antora/modules/gradle-plugin/pages/aot.adoc
+++ b/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/antora/modules/gradle-plugin/pages/aot.adoc
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 Spring AOT is a process that analyzes your code at build-time in order to generate an optimized version of it.
 It is most often used to help generate GraalVM native images.
 
-The Spring Boot Gradle plugin provides tasks that can be used to perform AOT processing on both application and test code.
-The tasks are configured automatically when the {url-native-build-tools-docs-gradle-plugin}[GraalVM Native Image plugin] is applied:
+The `org.springframework.boot.aot` Gradle plugin provides tasks that can be used to perform AOT processing on both application and test code.
+The plugin is applied automatically when the {url-native-build-tools-docs-gradle-plugin}[GraalVM Native Image plugin] is applied:
 
 [tabs]
 ======
@@ -23,6 +23,24 @@ include::example$aot/apply-native-image-plugin.gradle.kts[]
 ----
 ======
 
+If you want to  xref:reference:packaging/aot.adoc[run an AOT-processed application on the JVM] rather than as a native image, apply the `org.springframework.boot.aot` plugin directly:
+
+[tabs]
+======
+Groovy::
++
+[source,groovy,indent=0,subs="verbatim,attributes"]
+----
+include::example$aot/apply-aot-plugin.gradle[]
+----
+Kotlin::
++
+[source,kotlin,indent=0,subs="verbatim,attributes"]
+----
+include::example$aot/apply-aot-plugin.gradle.kts[]
+----
+======
+
 
 
 [[aot.processing-applications]]
diff --git a/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/gradle/docs/AotDocumentationTests.java b/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/gradle/docs/AotDocumentationTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..54beb9af816
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build-plugin/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/gradle/docs/AotDocumentationTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2012-present the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.boot.gradle.docs;
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.TestTemplate;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;
+
+import org.springframework.boot.gradle.junit.GradleMultiDslExtension;
+import org.springframework.boot.testsupport.gradle.testkit.GradleBuild;
+
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+
+/**
+ * Tests for AOT documentation.
+ *
+ * @author Andy Wilkinson
+ */
+@ExtendWith(GradleMultiDslExtension.class)
+class AotDocumentationTests {
+
+	@SuppressWarnings("NullAway.Init")
+	GradleBuild gradleBuild;
+
+	@TestTemplate
+	void applyNativeImagePlugin() {
+		assertThat(this.gradleBuild.script(Examples.DIR + "aot/apply-native-image-plugin").build("tasks").getOutput())
+			.contains("nativeCompile")
+			.contains("aotClasses");
+	}
+
+	@TestTemplate
+	void applyAotPlugin() {
+		assertThat(this.gradleBuild.script(Examples.DIR + "aot/apply-aot-plugin").build("tasks").getOutput())
+			.contains("aotClasses")
+			.doesNotContain("nativeCompile");
+	}
+
+}