diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
index c5480a2d0ec27e6640a3ee31f02c73fa45a51944..aa89ea7056928988d2785a0e189cc66fba4294d9 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
@@ -6423,6 +6423,12 @@ qemuMonitorJSONGetSEVCapabilities(qemuMonitorPtr mon,
     if (qemuMonitorJSONCommand(mon, cmd, &reply) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
+    /* Both -object sev-guest and query-sev-capabilities can be present
+     * even if SEV is not available */
+    if (qemuMonitorJSONHasError(reply, "GenericError")) {
+        ret = 0;
+        goto cleanup;
+    }
 
     if (qemuMonitorJSONCheckError(cmd, reply) < 0)
         goto cleanup;