diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.0.rst
index 358d9447b131d..50aca237b6a12 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.0.rst
@@ -95,6 +95,7 @@ Other enhancements
 - :meth:`pd.concat` now raises when ``levels`` is given but ``keys`` is None (:issue:`46653`)
 - :meth:`pd.concat` now raises when ``levels`` contains duplicate values (:issue:`46653`)
 - Added ``numeric_only`` argument to :meth:`DataFrame.corr`, :meth:`DataFrame.corrwith`, and :meth:`DataFrame.cov` (:issue:`46560`)
+- Added ``index`` parameter to :meth:`DataFrame.to_dict` (:issue:`46398`)
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 .. _whatsnew_150.notable_bug_fixes:
diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index ceede5fdb5577..b92b0a416b3c5 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -1771,7 +1771,7 @@ def to_numpy(
 
         return result
 
-    def to_dict(self, orient: str = "dict", into=dict):
+    def to_dict(self, orient: str = "dict", into=dict, index=True):
         """
         Convert the DataFrame to a dictionary.
 
@@ -1807,6 +1807,11 @@ def to_dict(self, orient: str = "dict", into=dict):
             instance of the mapping type you want.  If you want a
             collections.defaultdict, you must pass it initialized.
 
+        index : bool default True
+            When set to False, method returns a dict without an index key
+            (and index_names if using orient='tight'). Can only be False
+            when orient='split' or 'tight'.
+
         Returns
         -------
         dict, list or collections.abc.Mapping
@@ -1909,6 +1914,11 @@ def to_dict(self, orient: str = "dict", into=dict):
             elif orient.startswith("i"):
                 orient = "index"
 
+        if not index and orient not in ['split', 'tight']:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "'index=False' is only valid when 'orient' is 'split' or 'tight"
+            )
+
         if orient == "dict":
             return into_c((k, v.to_dict(into)) for k, v in self.items())
 
@@ -1916,36 +1926,65 @@ def to_dict(self, orient: str = "dict", into=dict):
             return into_c((k, v.tolist()) for k, v in self.items())
 
         elif orient == "split":
-            return into_c(
-                (
-                    ("index", self.index.tolist()),
-                    ("columns", self.columns.tolist()),
+            if not index:
+                return into_c(
                     (
-                        "data",
-                        [
-                            list(map(maybe_box_native, t))
-                            for t in self.itertuples(index=False, name=None)
-                        ],
-                    ),
+                        ("columns", self.columns.tolist()),
+                        (
+                            "data",
+                            [
+                                list(map(maybe_box_native, t))
+                                for t in self.itertuples(index=False, name=None)
+                            ],
+                        ),
+                    )
+                )
+            else:
+                return into_c(
+                    (
+                        ("index", self.index.tolist()),
+                        ("columns", self.columns.tolist()),
+                        (
+                            "data",
+                            [
+                                list(map(maybe_box_native, t))
+                                for t in self.itertuples(index=False, name=None)
+                            ],
+                        ),
+                    )
                 )
-            )
 
         elif orient == "tight":
-            return into_c(
-                (
-                    ("index", self.index.tolist()),
-                    ("columns", self.columns.tolist()),
+            if not index:
+                return into_c(
+                    (
+                        ("columns", self.columns.tolist()),
+                        (
+                            "data",
+                            [
+                                list(map(maybe_box_native, t))
+                                for t in self.itertuples(index=False, name=None)
+                            ],
+                        ),
+                        ("column_names", list(self.columns.names)),
+                    )
+                )
+            else:
+                return into_c(
                     (
-                        "data",
-                        [
-                            list(map(maybe_box_native, t))
-                            for t in self.itertuples(index=False, name=None)
-                        ],
-                    ),
-                    ("index_names", list(self.index.names)),
-                    ("column_names", list(self.columns.names)),
+                        ("index", self.index.tolist()),
+                        ("columns", self.columns.tolist()),
+                        (
+                            "data",
+                            [
+                                list(map(maybe_box_native, t))
+                                for t in self.itertuples(index=False, name=None)
+                            ],
+                        ),
+                        ("index_names", list(self.index.names)),
+                        ("column_names", list(self.columns.names)),
+                    )
                 )
-            )
 
         elif orient == "series":
             return into_c((k, v) for k, v in self.items())
diff --git a/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_to_dict.py b/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_to_dict.py
index 31ea3e582eeb2..0959c7f4018d6 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_to_dict.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_to_dict.py
@@ -344,3 +344,16 @@ def test_to_dict_orient_tight(self, index, columns):
         roundtrip = DataFrame.from_dict(df.to_dict(orient="tight"), orient="tight")
 
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df, roundtrip)
+
+    def test_to_dict_index_orient_split(self):
+        df = DataFrame.from_dict({"a": [1, 3, 4], "b": [9, 11, 12]})
+        result = df.to_dict(orient='split', index=False)
+        expected = {'columns': ['a', 'b'], 'data': [[1, 9], [3, 11], [4, 12]]}
+        assert (result == expected)
+
+    def test_to_dict_index_orient_tight(self):
+        df = DataFrame.from_dict({"a": [1, 3, 4], "b": [9, 11, 12]})
+        result = df.to_dict(orient='split', index=False)
+        expected = {'columns': ['a', 'b'], 'data': [
+            [1, 9], [3, 11], [4, 12]], 'column_names': [None]}
+        assert (result == expected)