diff --git a/src/Storages/StorageDistributed.cpp b/src/Storages/StorageDistributed.cpp
index 52c8c4f79e0..9fefcdaac49 100644
--- a/src/Storages/StorageDistributed.cpp
+++ b/src/Storages/StorageDistributed.cpp
@@ -468,7 +468,7 @@ QueryProcessingStage::Enum StorageDistributed::getQueryProcessingStage(
 
     /// Always calculate optimized cluster here, to avoid conditions during read()
     /// (Anyway it will be calculated in the read())
-    if (settings.optimize_skip_unused_shards)
+    if (getClusterQueriedNodes(settings, cluster) > 1 && settings.optimize_skip_unused_shards)
     {
         ClusterPtr optimized_cluster = getOptimizedCluster(local_context, metadata_snapshot, query_info.query);
         if (optimized_cluster)
diff --git a/tests/queries/0_stateless/01812_optimize_skip_unused_shards_single_node.reference b/tests/queries/0_stateless/01812_optimize_skip_unused_shards_single_node.reference
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e69de29bb2d
diff --git a/tests/queries/0_stateless/01812_optimize_skip_unused_shards_single_node.sql b/tests/queries/0_stateless/01812_optimize_skip_unused_shards_single_node.sql
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c39947f2c04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/queries/0_stateless/01812_optimize_skip_unused_shards_single_node.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+-- remote() does not have sharding key, while force_optimize_skip_unused_shards=2 requires from table to have it.
+-- But due to only one node, everything works.
+select * from remote('127.1', system.one) settings optimize_skip_unused_shards=1, force_optimize_skip_unused_shards=2 format Null;