diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d59e2ea..2a884de 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -87,6 +87,24 @@ let output = try Chroma.highlight(code, language: .swift)
 print(output)
 ```
 
+### Inferring Language IDs
+
+Infer a language from file names, paths, or URLs:
+
+```swift
+let language = LanguageID.fromFileName("MyFile.swift")
+let output = try Chroma.highlight(code, language: language)
+```
+
+`language` is optional; passing `nil` skips syntax highlighting and returns the original text.
+
+Fallback to plain text when the language is unavailable:
+
+```swift
+let options = HighlightOptions(missingLanguageHandling: .fallbackToPlainText)
+let output = try Chroma.highlight(code, language: "unknown", options: options)
+```
+
 ### Themes
 
 Chroma includes two built-in themes:
diff --git a/Sources/Chroma/BenchmarkSupport.swift b/Sources/Chroma/BenchmarkSupport.swift
index cf956f1..e502c70 100644
--- a/Sources/Chroma/BenchmarkSupport.swift
+++ b/Sources/Chroma/BenchmarkSupport.swift
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import Foundation
+
 @_spi(Benchmarking)
 public struct TokenBuffer {
     fileprivate let tokens: [Token]
@@ -9,9 +11,14 @@ public struct TokenBuffer {
 public enum BenchmarkSupport {
     public static func tokenize(
         _ code: String,
-        language: LanguageID,
+        language: LanguageID?,
         registry: LanguageRegistry = .builtIn()
     ) throws -> TokenBuffer {
+        guard let language else {
+            let ns = code as NSString
+            return TokenBuffer(tokens: [Token(kind: .plain, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: ns.length))])
+        }
+
         guard let language = registry.language(for: language) else {
             throw Highlighter.Error.languageNotFound(language)
         }
@@ -22,10 +29,15 @@ public enum BenchmarkSupport {
 
     public static func tokenize(
         _ code: String,
-        language: LanguageID,
+        language: LanguageID?,
         registry: LanguageRegistry = .builtIn(),
         metrics: inout TokenizerMetrics
     ) throws -> TokenBuffer {
+        guard let language else {
+            let ns = code as NSString
+            return TokenBuffer(tokens: [Token(kind: .plain, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: ns.length))])
+        }
+
         guard let language = registry.language(for: language) else {
             throw Highlighter.Error.languageNotFound(language)
         }
diff --git a/Sources/Chroma/Chroma.swift b/Sources/Chroma/Chroma.swift
index c310dda..6693259 100644
--- a/Sources/Chroma/Chroma.swift
+++ b/Sources/Chroma/Chroma.swift
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ public enum Chroma {
     /// Convenience helper for one-off highlighting using `Chroma.shared`.
     public static func highlight(
         _ code: String,
-        language: LanguageID,
+        language: LanguageID?,
         options: HighlightOptions = .init()
     ) throws -> String {
         try shared.highlight(code, language: language, options: options)
@@ -16,14 +16,14 @@ public enum Chroma {
 
     public static func tokenize(
         _ code: String,
-        language: LanguageID
+        language: LanguageID?
     ) throws -> [Token] {
         try shared.tokenize(code, language: language)
     }
 
     public static func tokenize(
         _ code: String,
-        language: LanguageID,
+        language: LanguageID?,
         emit: (Token) -> Void
     ) throws {
         try shared.tokenize(code, language: language, emit: emit)
diff --git a/Sources/Chroma/HighlightOptions.swift b/Sources/Chroma/HighlightOptions.swift
index 69236a2..292097a 100644
--- a/Sources/Chroma/HighlightOptions.swift
+++ b/Sources/Chroma/HighlightOptions.swift
@@ -22,6 +22,11 @@ public struct LineNumberOptions: Equatable {
 }
 
 public struct HighlightOptions: Equatable {
+    public enum MissingLanguageHandling: Equatable {
+        case error
+        case fallbackToPlainText
+    }
+
     public enum DiffCodeStyle: Equatable {
         case syntax
         case plain
@@ -44,6 +49,7 @@ public struct HighlightOptions: Equatable {
     }
 
     public var theme: Theme?
+    public var missingLanguageHandling: MissingLanguageHandling
     public var diff: DiffHighlight
     public var highlightLines: LineRangeSet
     public var lineNumbers: LineNumberOptions
@@ -57,12 +63,14 @@ public struct HighlightOptions: Equatable {
 
     public init(
         theme: Theme? = nil,
+        missingLanguageHandling: MissingLanguageHandling = .error,
         diff: DiffHighlight = .auto(),
         highlightLines: LineRangeSet = .init(),
         lineNumbers: LineNumberOptions = .none,
         indent: Int = 0
     ) {
         self.theme = theme
+        self.missingLanguageHandling = missingLanguageHandling
         self.diff = diff
         self.highlightLines = highlightLines
         self.lineNumbers = lineNumbers
diff --git a/Sources/Chroma/Highlighter.swift b/Sources/Chroma/Highlighter.swift
index b8aac54..5e047e7 100644
--- a/Sources/Chroma/Highlighter.swift
+++ b/Sources/Chroma/Highlighter.swift
@@ -16,10 +16,17 @@ public final class Highlighter {
 
     public func highlight(
         _ code: String,
-        language: LanguageID,
+        language: LanguageID?,
         options: HighlightOptions = .init()
     ) throws -> String {
-        guard let language = registry.language(for: language) else {
+        guard let language else {
+            return code
+        }
+
+        guard let definition = registry.language(for: language) else {
+            if options.missingLanguageHandling == .fallbackToPlainText {
+                return code
+            }
             throw Error.languageNotFound(language)
         }
 
@@ -30,11 +37,11 @@ public final class Highlighter {
             let tokens = [Token(kind: .plain, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: ns.length))]
             return renderer.render(code: code, tokens: tokens)
         }
-        if isMarkdown(language.id) {
-            let tokenizer = MarkdownTokenizer(rules: language.rules, registry: registry)
+        if isMarkdown(definition.id) {
+            let tokenizer = MarkdownTokenizer(rules: definition.rules, registry: registry)
             return renderer.render(code: code, tokens: tokenizer.tokenize(code))
         }
-        let tokenizer = RegexTokenizer(rules: language.rules, fastPath: language.fastPath)
+        let tokenizer = RegexTokenizer(rules: definition.rules, fastPath: definition.fastPath)
         return renderer.render(code: code) { emit in
             tokenizer.scan(code, emit: emit)
         }
@@ -42,35 +49,46 @@ public final class Highlighter {
 
     public func tokenize(
         _ code: String,
-        language: LanguageID
+        language: LanguageID?
     ) throws -> [Token] {
-        guard let language = registry.language(for: language) else {
+        guard let language else {
+            let ns = code as NSString
+            return [Token(kind: .plain, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: ns.length))]
+        }
+
+        guard let definition = registry.language(for: language) else {
             throw Error.languageNotFound(language)
         }
 
-        if isMarkdown(language.id) {
-            let tokenizer = MarkdownTokenizer(rules: language.rules, registry: registry)
+        if isMarkdown(definition.id) {
+            let tokenizer = MarkdownTokenizer(rules: definition.rules, registry: registry)
             return tokenizer.tokenize(code)
         }
-        let tokenizer = RegexTokenizer(rules: language.rules, fastPath: language.fastPath)
+        let tokenizer = RegexTokenizer(rules: definition.rules, fastPath: definition.fastPath)
         return tokenizer.tokenize(code)
     }
 
     public func tokenize(
         _ code: String,
-        language: LanguageID,
+        language: LanguageID?,
         emit: (Token) -> Void
     ) throws {
-        guard let language = registry.language(for: language) else {
+        guard let language else {
+            let ns = code as NSString
+            emit(Token(kind: .plain, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: ns.length)))
+            return
+        }
+
+        guard let definition = registry.language(for: language) else {
             throw Error.languageNotFound(language)
         }
 
-        if isMarkdown(language.id) {
-            let tokenizer = MarkdownTokenizer(rules: language.rules, registry: registry)
+        if isMarkdown(definition.id) {
+            let tokenizer = MarkdownTokenizer(rules: definition.rules, registry: registry)
             tokenizer.scan(code, emit: emit)
             return
         }
-        let tokenizer = RegexTokenizer(rules: language.rules, fastPath: language.fastPath)
+        let tokenizer = RegexTokenizer(rules: definition.rules, fastPath: definition.fastPath)
         tokenizer.scan(code, emit: emit)
     }
 
diff --git a/Sources/Chroma/LanguageID.swift b/Sources/Chroma/LanguageID.swift
index 7554d35..a86bc3e 100644
--- a/Sources/Chroma/LanguageID.swift
+++ b/Sources/Chroma/LanguageID.swift
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import Foundation
+
 public struct LanguageID: Hashable, RawRepresentable, ExpressibleByStringLiteral, CustomStringConvertible {
     public var rawValue: String
 
@@ -59,3 +61,106 @@ public extension LanguageID {
     static let dockerfile: Self = "dockerfile"
     static let makefile: Self = "makefile"
 }
+
+public extension LanguageID {
+    /// Infers a language from a file name or returns `nil` when no match is found.
+    static func fromFileName(_ fileName: String) -> LanguageID? {
+        let trimmed = fileName.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines)
+        guard !trimmed.isEmpty else { return nil }
+
+        let name = trimmed
+            .split(whereSeparator: { $0 == "/" || $0 == "\\" })
+            .last
+            .map(String.init) ?? trimmed
+
+        let lowercased = name.lowercased()
+        if let direct = fileNameLookup[lowercased] {
+            return direct
+        }
+        if lowercased.hasPrefix("dockerfile.") {
+            return .dockerfile
+        }
+        if lowercased.hasPrefix("makefile.") {
+            return .makefile
+        }
+
+        guard let ext = fileExtension(from: lowercased),
+              let language = extensionLookup[ext] else {
+            return nil
+        }
+        return language
+    }
+
+    /// Infers a language from a file path or returns `nil` when no match is found.
+    static func fromFilePath(_ path: String) -> LanguageID? {
+        fromFileName(URL(fileURLWithPath: path).lastPathComponent)
+    }
+
+    /// Infers a language from a file URL or returns `nil` when no match is found.
+    static func fromURL(_ url: URL) -> LanguageID? {
+        fromFileName(url.lastPathComponent)
+    }
+}
+
+private extension LanguageID {
+    static let fileNameLookup: [String: LanguageID] = [
+        "makefile": .makefile,
+        "gnumakefile": .makefile,
+        "dockerfile": .dockerfile,
+    ]
+
+    static let extensionLookup: [String: LanguageID] = [
+        "swift": .swift,
+        "m": .objectiveC,
+        "mm": .objectiveC,
+        "c": .c,
+        "cpp": .cpp,
+        "cxx": .cxx,
+        "cc": .cpp,
+        "c++": .cplusplus,
+        "hpp": .cpp,
+        "hxx": .cxx,
+        "hh": .cpp,
+        "js": .js,
+        "jsx": .jsx,
+        "ts": .ts,
+        "tsx": .tsx,
+        "py": .py,
+        "rb": .rb,
+        "go": .go,
+        "rs": .rust,
+        "kt": .kotlin,
+        "kts": .kotlin,
+        "java": .java,
+        "cs": .cs,
+        "php": .php,
+        "dart": .dart,
+        "lua": .lua,
+        "sh": .sh,
+        "bash": .bash,
+        "zsh": .zsh,
+        "sql": .sql,
+        "css": .css,
+        "scss": .scss,
+        "sass": .sass,
+        "less": .less,
+        "html": .html,
+        "htm": .html,
+        "xml": .xml,
+        "json": .json,
+        "yaml": .yaml,
+        "yml": .yml,
+        "toml": .toml,
+        "md": .md,
+        "markdown": .markdown,
+        "dockerfile": .dockerfile,
+        "mk": .makefile,
+    ]
+
+    static func fileExtension(from name: String) -> String? {
+        guard let dotIndex = name.lastIndex(of: ".") else { return nil }
+        let nextIndex = name.index(after: dotIndex)
+        guard nextIndex < name.endIndex else { return nil }
+        return String(name[nextIndex...])
+    }
+}
diff --git a/Tests/ChromaTests/ChromaFacadeTests.swift b/Tests/ChromaTests/ChromaFacadeTests.swift
index eabd176..7e0f9c6 100644
--- a/Tests/ChromaTests/ChromaFacadeTests.swift
+++ b/Tests/ChromaTests/ChromaFacadeTests.swift
@@ -26,4 +26,22 @@ struct ChromaFacadeTests {
             _ = try Chroma.highlight("value", language: "unknown")
         }
     }
+
+    @Test("Chroma.highlight falls back to plain text when configured")
+    func unknownLanguageFallback() throws {
+        let code = "value"
+        let output = try Chroma.highlight(
+            code,
+            language: "unknown",
+            options: .init(missingLanguageHandling: .fallbackToPlainText)
+        )
+        #expect(output == code)
+    }
+
+    @Test("Chroma.highlight returns plain text when language is nil")
+    func nilLanguageReturnsPlainText() throws {
+        let code = "let value = 1"
+        let output = try Chroma.highlight(code, language: nil)
+        #expect(output == code)
+    }
 }
diff --git a/Tests/ChromaTests/HighlightOptionsTests.swift b/Tests/ChromaTests/HighlightOptionsTests.swift
index 4ba8494..007a580 100644
--- a/Tests/ChromaTests/HighlightOptionsTests.swift
+++ b/Tests/ChromaTests/HighlightOptionsTests.swift
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ struct HighlightOptionsTests {
     func defaults() {
         let options = HighlightOptions()
         #expect(options.theme == nil)
+        #expect(options.missingLanguageHandling == .error)
         #expect(options.diff == .auto())
         #expect(options.highlightLines == LineRangeSet())
         #expect(options.lineNumbers == .none)
diff --git a/Tests/ChromaTests/IdentifierTests.swift b/Tests/ChromaTests/IdentifierTests.swift
index 0faa7ad..7eb55c3 100644
--- a/Tests/ChromaTests/IdentifierTests.swift
+++ b/Tests/ChromaTests/IdentifierTests.swift
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import Foundation
 import Testing
 @testable import Chroma
 
@@ -16,4 +17,24 @@ struct IdentifierTests {
         #expect(kind.rawValue == "keyword")
         #expect(kind.description == "keyword")
     }
+
+    @Test("LanguageID infers from file names")
+    func languageIDFromFileName() {
+        #expect(LanguageID.fromFileName("MyFile.swift") == .swift)
+        #expect(LanguageID.fromFileName("hello.kt") == .kotlin)
+        #expect(LanguageID.fromFileName("Dockerfile") == .dockerfile)
+        #expect(LanguageID.fromFileName("Dockerfile.dev") == .dockerfile)
+        #expect(LanguageID.fromFileName("Makefile") == .makefile)
+        #expect(LanguageID.fromFileName("Makefile.local") == .makefile)
+        #expect(LanguageID.fromFileName("unknown.ext") == nil)
+    }
+
+    @Test("LanguageID infers from paths and URLs")
+    func languageIDFromPathAndURL() {
+        #expect(LanguageID.fromFilePath("/tmp/project/Foo.tsx") == .tsx)
+        #expect(LanguageID.fromFilePath("/tmp/project/GNUmakefile") == .makefile)
+
+        let url = URL(fileURLWithPath: "/tmp/project/App.jsx")
+        #expect(LanguageID.fromURL(url) == .jsx)
+    }
 }
diff --git a/Tests/ChromaTests/Support/TestSupport.swift b/Tests/ChromaTests/Support/TestSupport.swift
index 2a48798..960ec0f 100644
--- a/Tests/ChromaTests/Support/TestSupport.swift
+++ b/Tests/ChromaTests/Support/TestSupport.swift
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ func assertGolden(
 
 func highlightWithTestTheme(
     _ code: String,
-    language: LanguageID,
+    language: LanguageID?,
     registry: LanguageRegistry = .builtIn(),
     options: HighlightOptions = .init()
 ) throws -> String {