diff --git a/xarray/core/concat.py b/xarray/core/concat.py
index 182cf8a23a1..97c22578444 100644
--- a/xarray/core/concat.py
+++ b/xarray/core/concat.py
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ def concat(
     except StopIteration:
         raise ValueError("must supply at least one object to concatenate")
 
-    if compat not in _VALID_COMPAT:
+    if compat not in set(_VALID_COMPAT) - {"minimal"}:
         raise ValueError(
             f"compat={compat!r} invalid: must be 'broadcast_equals', 'equals', 'identical', 'no_conflicts' or 'override'"
         )
diff --git a/xarray/tests/test_concat.py b/xarray/tests/test_concat.py
index e0dc105c925..dee890d285b 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/test_concat.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/test_concat.py
@@ -660,6 +660,9 @@ def test_concat_errors(self):
         with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=r"compat.* invalid"):
             concat(split_data, "dim1", compat="foobar")
 
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=r"compat.* invalid"):
+            concat(split_data, "dim1", compat="minimal")
+
         with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=r"unexpected value for"):
             concat([data, data], "new_dim", coords="foobar")