diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 75e7215a7878..8e09e0c149f3 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ nosetests.xml
 
 # Built documentation
 docs/_build
+docs/_build_rtd
 
 # Virtual environment
 env/
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 5ce81b771751..91a3227b0963 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -42,6 +42,16 @@ deps =
     Sphinx
 passenv = {[testenv:system-tests]passenv} SPHINX_RELEASE READTHEDOCS LOCAL_RTD
 
+[testenv:docs-rtd]
+setenv =
+    LOCAL_RTD = True
+basepython = {[testenv:docs]basepython}
+commands =
+    python -c "import shutil; shutil.rmtree('docs/_build_rtd', ignore_errors=True)"
+    sphinx-build -W -b html -d docs/_build_rtd/doctrees docs docs/_build_rtd/html
+deps = {[testenv:docs]deps}
+passenv = {[testenv:docs]passenv}
+
 [pep8]
 exclude = gcloud/datastore/_datastore_v1_pb2.py,docs/conf.py
 verbose = 1