diff --git a/src/datasets/builder.py b/src/datasets/builder.py
index 7f10ece15e1..7f038fb6164 100644
--- a/src/datasets/builder.py
+++ b/src/datasets/builder.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@
 from .splits import Split, SplitDict, SplitGenerator
 from .utils import logging
 from .utils.download_manager import DownloadManager, GenerateMode
-from .utils.file_utils import DownloadConfig, is_remote_url
+from .utils.file_utils import DownloadConfig, is_remote_url, request_etag
 from .utils.filelock import FileLock
 from .utils.info_utils import get_size_checksum_dict, verify_checksums, verify_splits
 
@@ -95,7 +95,12 @@ def __eq__(self, o):
             return False
         return all((k, getattr(self, k)) == (k, getattr(o, k)) for k in self.__dict__.keys())
 
-    def create_config_id(self, config_kwargs: dict, custom_features: Optional[Features] = None) -> str:
+    def create_config_id(
+        self,
+        config_kwargs: dict,
+        custom_features: Optional[Features] = None,
+        use_auth_token: Optional[Union[bool, str]] = None,
+    ) -> str:
         """
         The config id is used to build the cache directory.
         By default it is equal to the config name.
@@ -152,6 +157,7 @@ def create_config_id(self, config_kwargs: dict, custom_features: Optional[Featur
                 for data_file in data_files[key]:
                     if is_remote_url(data_file):
                         m.update(data_file)
+                        m.update(str(request_etag(data_file, use_auth_token=use_auth_token)))
                     else:
                         m.update(os.path.abspath(data_file))
                         m.update(str(os.path.getmtime(data_file)))
@@ -209,6 +215,7 @@ def __init__(
         hash: Optional[str] = None,
         base_path: Optional[str] = None,
         features: Optional[Features] = None,
+        use_auth_token: Optional[Union[bool, str]] = None,
         **config_kwargs,
     ):
         """Constructs a DatasetBuilder.
@@ -226,6 +233,8 @@ def __init__(
             base_path: `str`, base path for relative paths that are used to download files. This can be a remote url.
             features: `Features`, optional features that will be used to read/write the dataset
                 It can be used to changed the :obj:`datasets.Features` description of a dataset for example.
+            use_auth_token (:obj:`str` or :obj:`bool`, optional): Optional string or boolean to use as Bearer token
+                for remote files on the Datasets Hub. If True, will get token from ``"~/.huggingface"``.
             config_kwargs: will override the defaults kwargs in config
 
         """
@@ -233,6 +242,7 @@ def __init__(
         self.name: str = camelcase_to_snakecase(self.__class__.__name__)
         self.hash: Optional[str] = hash
         self.base_path = base_path
+        self.use_auth_token = use_auth_token
 
         # Prepare config: DatasetConfig contains name, version and description but can be extended by each dataset
         config_kwargs = {key: value for key, value in config_kwargs.items() if value is not None}
@@ -355,7 +365,9 @@ def _create_builder_config(self, name=None, custom_features=None, **config_kwarg
             raise ValueError("BuilderConfig must have a name, got %s" % builder_config.name)
 
         # compute the config id that is going to be used for caching
-        config_id = builder_config.create_config_id(config_kwargs, custom_features=custom_features)
+        config_id = builder_config.create_config_id(
+            config_kwargs, custom_features=custom_features, use_auth_token=self.use_auth_token
+        )
         is_custom = config_id not in self.builder_configs
         if is_custom:
             logger.warning("Using custom data configuration %s", config_id)
diff --git a/src/datasets/load.py b/src/datasets/load.py
index 46dece0e3ba..aaf01fc7109 100644
--- a/src/datasets/load.py
+++ b/src/datasets/load.py
@@ -701,6 +701,7 @@ def load_dataset_builder(
         hash=hash,
         base_path=base_path,
         features=features,
+        use_auth_token=use_auth_token,
         **config_kwargs,
     )
 
diff --git a/src/datasets/utils/file_utils.py b/src/datasets/utils/file_utils.py
index 8b2dbdf5528..f6ab0392a36 100644
--- a/src/datasets/utils/file_utils.py
+++ b/src/datasets/utils/file_utils.py
@@ -464,6 +464,13 @@ def http_head(
     return response
 
 
+def request_etag(url: str, use_auth_token: Optional[Union[str, bool]] = None):
+    headers = get_authentication_headers_for_url(url, use_auth_token=use_auth_token)
+    response = http_head(url, headers=headers)
+    etag = response.headers.get("ETag") if response.ok else None
+    return etag
+
+
 def get_from_cache(
     url,
     cache_dir=None,