diff --git a/sys/geom/part/g_part_gpt.c b/sys/geom/part/g_part_gpt.c
--- a/sys/geom/part/g_part_gpt.c
+++ b/sys/geom/part/g_part_gpt.c
@@ -103,7 +103,8 @@
 
 static void g_gpt_printf_utf16(struct sbuf *, uint16_t *, size_t);
 static void g_gpt_utf8_to_utf16(const uint8_t *, uint16_t *, size_t);
-static void g_gpt_set_defaults(struct g_part_table *, struct g_provider *);
+static void g_gpt_set_defaults(struct g_part_table *, struct g_provider *,
+    struct g_part_parms *);
 
 static int g_part_gpt_add(struct g_part_table *, struct g_part_entry *,
     struct g_part_parms *);
@@ -717,7 +718,7 @@
 	table->hdr->hdr_entries = basetable->gpt_entries;
 	table->hdr->hdr_entsz = sizeof(struct gpt_ent);
 
-	g_gpt_set_defaults(basetable, pp);
+	g_gpt_set_defaults(basetable, pp, gpp);
 	return (0);
 }
 
@@ -1083,7 +1084,7 @@
 	table = (struct g_part_gpt_table *)basetable;
 	pp = LIST_FIRST(&basetable->gpt_gp->consumer)->provider;
 	gpt_create_pmbr(table, pp);
-	g_gpt_set_defaults(basetable, pp);
+	g_gpt_set_defaults(basetable, pp, NULL);
 	basetable->gpt_corrupt = 0;
 	return (0);
 }
@@ -1300,7 +1301,8 @@
 }
 
 static void
-g_gpt_set_defaults(struct g_part_table *basetable, struct g_provider *pp)
+g_gpt_set_defaults(struct g_part_table *basetable, struct g_provider *pp,
+	struct g_part_parms *gpp)
 {
 	struct g_part_entry *baseentry;
 	struct g_part_gpt_entry *entry;
@@ -1334,14 +1336,29 @@
 		if (entry->ent.ent_lba_end > max)
 			max = entry->ent.ent_lba_end;
 	}
-	spb = 4096 / pp->sectorsize;
-	if (spb > 1) {
-		lba = start + ((start % spb) ? spb - start % spb : 0);
-		if (lba <= min)
-			start = lba;
-		lba = end - (end + 1) % spb;
-		if (max <= lba)
-			end = lba;
+	/*
+	 * Don't force alignment of any kind whatsoever on resize, restore or
+	 * recover. resize doesn't go through this path, recover has a NULL gpp
+	 * and restore has flags == restore (maybe with an appended 'C' to
+	 * commit the operation). For these operations, we have to trust the
+	 * user knows what they are doing.
+	 *
+	 * Otherwise it some flavor of creation of a new partition, so we align
+	 * to a 4k offset on the drive, to make 512e/4kn drives more performant
+	 * by default.
+	 */
+	if (gpp == NULL ||
+	    (gpp->gpp_parms & G_PART_PARM_FLAGS) == 0 ||
+	    strstr(gpp->gpp_flags, "restore") == NULL) {
+		spb = 4096 / pp->sectorsize;
+		if (spb > 1) {
+			lba = start + ((start % spb) ? spb - start % spb : 0);
+			if (lba <= min)
+				start = lba;
+			lba = end - (end + 1) % spb;
+			if (max <= lba)
+				end = lba;
+		}
 	}
 	table->hdr->hdr_lba_start = start;
 	table->hdr->hdr_lba_end = end;