diff --git a/src/framework/ajv/options.ts b/src/framework/ajv/options.ts
index 5bf32b09..9bf761b0 100644
--- a/src/framework/ajv/options.ts
+++ b/src/framework/ajv/options.ts
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ export class AjvOptions {
   }
 
   private baseOptions(): Options {
-    const { coerceTypes, formats, validateFormats, serDes, ajvFormats } =
+    const { coerceTypes, formats, validateFormats, serDes, ajvFormats, ajvKeywords, useDefaults } =
       this.options;
     const serDesMap = {};
     for (const serDesObject of serDes) {
@@ -67,12 +67,13 @@ export class AjvOptions {
       allowUnionTypes: false,
       validateSchema: false, // this is true for startup validation, thus it can be bypassed here
       coerceTypes,
-      useDefaults: true,
+      useDefaults: useDefaults ?? true,
       removeAdditional: false,
       validateFormats: validateFormats,
       formats,
       serDesMap,
       ajvFormats,
+      keywords: ajvKeywords
     };
 
     return options;
diff --git a/src/framework/types.ts b/src/framework/types.ts
index 9d4d0c65..a19fc496 100644
--- a/src/framework/types.ts
+++ b/src/framework/types.ts
@@ -149,6 +149,8 @@ export interface OpenApiValidatorOpts {
   unknownFormats?: true | string[] | 'ignore';
   serDes?: SerDes[];
   formats?: Format[] | Record<string, ajv.Format>;
+  ajvKeywords?: ajv.Vocabulary;
+  useDefaults?: boolean | 'empty';
   ajvFormats?: FormatsPluginOptions;
   fileUploader?: boolean | multer.Options;
   multerOpts?: multer.Options;