diff --git a/cli/README.md b/cli/README.md
index 2af17e9..7474f0a 100644
--- a/cli/README.md
+++ b/cli/README.md
@@ -139,8 +139,8 @@ Fetch a list of all the items saved in your YouTube/YouTube Music profile.
 
 - **Proxy:** RustyPipe respects the environment variables `HTTP_PROXY`, `HTTPS_PROXY`
   and `ALL_PROXY`
-- **Logging:** You can change the log level with the `RUST_LOG` environment variable, it
-  is set to `info` by default
+- **Logging:** Enable debug logging with the `-v` (verbose) flag. If you want more
+  fine-grained control, use the `RUST_LOG` environment variable.
 - **Visitor data:** A custom visitor data ID can be used with the `--vdata` flag
 - **Authentication:** Use the commands `rustypipe login` and `rustypipe login --cookie`
   to log into your Google account using either OAuth or YouTube cookies. With the
diff --git a/cli/src/main.rs b/cli/src/main.rs
index f192dd8..b226221 100644
--- a/cli/src/main.rs
+++ b/cli/src/main.rs
@@ -80,6 +80,9 @@ struct Cli {
     /// Enable caching for session-bound PO tokens
     #[clap(long, global = true)]
     pot_cache: bool,
+    /// Enable debug logging
+    #[clap(short, long, global = true)]
+    verbose: bool,
 }
 
 #[derive(Parser)]
@@ -878,12 +881,15 @@ async fn run() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     let cli = Cli::parse();
     let multi = MultiProgress::new();
 
+    let mut env_filter = EnvFilter::builder()
+        .with_default_directive(LevelFilter::INFO.into())
+        .from_env_lossy();
+    if cli.verbose {
+        env_filter = env_filter.add_directive("rustypipe=debug".parse().unwrap());
+    }
+
     tracing_subscriber::fmt::SubscriberBuilder::default()
-        .with_env_filter(
-            EnvFilter::builder()
-                .with_default_directive(LevelFilter::INFO.into())
-                .from_env_lossy(),
-        )
+        .with_env_filter(env_filter)
         .with_writer(ProgWriter(multi.clone()))
         .init();