diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b6733031b3fe..a1b58c3a36ec 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 ## [`master`](https://github.com/elastic/eui/tree/master)
 
+- Removed dependency on option list for custom option of `EuiComboBox` ([#3183](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/3183))
 - Fixed `EuiPopover` arrow position in Android and Linux ([#3188](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/3188))
 - Improved `htmlIdGenerator` when supplying both `prefix` and `suffix` ([#3076](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/3076))
 - Updated pagination prop descriptions for `EuiInMemoryTable` ([#3142](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/3142))
diff --git a/src/components/combo_box/combo_box.tsx b/src/components/combo_box/combo_box.tsx
index ebad2f90cd52..b3f6b7940686 100644
--- a/src/components/combo_box/combo_box.tsx
+++ b/src/components/combo_box/combo_box.tsx
@@ -472,7 +472,21 @@ export class EuiComboBox<T> extends Component<
     if (async) {
       return false;
     }
-    return flattenOptionGroups(options).length === selectedOptions.length;
+
+    const flattenOptions = flattenOptionGroups(options).map(option => {
+      return { ...option, label: option.label.trim().toLowerCase() };
+    });
+
+    let numberOfSelectedOptions = 0;
+    selectedOptions.forEach(({ label }) => {
+      const trimmedLabel = label.trim().toLowerCase();
+      if (
+        flattenOptions.findIndex(option => option.label === trimmedLabel) !== -1
+      )
+        numberOfSelectedOptions += 1;
+    });
+
+    return flattenOptions.length === numberOfSelectedOptions;
   };
 
   isSingleSelectionCustomOption = () => {