diff --git a/datafusion-cli/src/exec.rs b/datafusion-cli/src/exec.rs
index aabf69aac888..a175f99a90d8 100644
--- a/datafusion-cli/src/exec.rs
+++ b/datafusion-cli/src/exec.rs
@@ -128,6 +128,7 @@ pub async fn exec_from_repl(
     let mut rl = Editor::new()?;
     rl.set_helper(Some(CliHelper::new(
         &ctx.task_ctx().session_config().options().sql_parser.dialect,
+        print_options.color,
     )));
     rl.load_history(".history").ok();
 
diff --git a/datafusion-cli/src/helper.rs b/datafusion-cli/src/helper.rs
index 0e146d575718..a8e149b4c5c6 100644
--- a/datafusion-cli/src/helper.rs
+++ b/datafusion-cli/src/helper.rs
@@ -38,20 +38,25 @@ use rustyline::Context;
 use rustyline::Helper;
 use rustyline::Result;
 
-use crate::highlighter::SyntaxHighlighter;
+use crate::highlighter::{NoSyntaxHighlighter, SyntaxHighlighter};
 
 pub struct CliHelper {
     completer: FilenameCompleter,
     dialect: String,
-    highlighter: SyntaxHighlighter,
+    highlighter: Box<dyn Highlighter>,
 }
 
 impl CliHelper {
-    pub fn new(dialect: &str) -> Self {
+    pub fn new(dialect: &str, color: bool) -> Self {
+        let highlighter: Box<dyn Highlighter> = if !color {
+            Box::new(NoSyntaxHighlighter {})
+        } else {
+            Box::new(SyntaxHighlighter::new(dialect))
+        };
         Self {
             completer: FilenameCompleter::new(),
             dialect: dialect.into(),
-            highlighter: SyntaxHighlighter::new(dialect),
+            highlighter,
         }
     }
 
@@ -102,7 +107,7 @@ impl CliHelper {
 
 impl Default for CliHelper {
     fn default() -> Self {
-        Self::new("generic")
+        Self::new("generic", false)
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/datafusion-cli/src/highlighter.rs b/datafusion-cli/src/highlighter.rs
index 28732d5b976f..0bb75510b524 100644
--- a/datafusion-cli/src/highlighter.rs
+++ b/datafusion-cli/src/highlighter.rs
@@ -30,20 +30,22 @@ use datafusion::sql::sqlparser::{
 use rustyline::highlight::Highlighter;
 
 /// The syntax highlighter.
+#[derive(Debug)]
 pub struct SyntaxHighlighter {
     dialect: Box<dyn Dialect>,
 }
 
 impl SyntaxHighlighter {
     pub fn new(dialect: &str) -> Self {
-        let dialect = match dialect_from_str(dialect) {
-            Some(dialect) => dialect,
-            None => Box::new(GenericDialect {}),
-        };
+        let dialect = dialect_from_str(dialect).unwrap_or(Box::new(GenericDialect {}));
         Self { dialect }
     }
 }
 
+pub struct NoSyntaxHighlighter {}
+
+impl Highlighter for NoSyntaxHighlighter {}
+
 impl Highlighter for SyntaxHighlighter {
     fn highlight<'l>(&self, line: &'l str, _: usize) -> Cow<'l, str> {
         let mut out_line = String::new();
diff --git a/datafusion-cli/src/lib.rs b/datafusion-cli/src/lib.rs
index 61f9eae7dd53..139a60b8cf16 100644
--- a/datafusion-cli/src/lib.rs
+++ b/datafusion-cli/src/lib.rs
@@ -23,8 +23,7 @@ pub mod command;
 pub mod exec;
 pub mod functions;
 pub mod helper;
+pub mod highlighter;
 pub mod object_storage;
 pub mod print_format;
 pub mod print_options;
-
-mod highlighter;
diff --git a/datafusion-cli/src/main.rs b/datafusion-cli/src/main.rs
index a9082f2e5351..38537dbd9238 100644
--- a/datafusion-cli/src/main.rs
+++ b/datafusion-cli/src/main.rs
@@ -136,6 +136,9 @@ struct Args {
         default_value = "40"
     )]
     maxrows: MaxRows,
+
+    #[clap(long, help = "Enables console syntax highlighting")]
+    color: bool,
 }
 
 #[tokio::main]
@@ -169,28 +172,28 @@ async fn main_inner() -> Result<()> {
         session_config = session_config.with_batch_size(batch_size);
     };
 
-    let rn_config = RuntimeConfig::new();
-    let rn_config =
+    let rt_config = RuntimeConfig::new();
+    let rt_config =
         // set memory pool size
         if let Some(memory_limit) = args.memory_limit {
             let memory_limit = extract_memory_pool_size(&memory_limit).unwrap();
             // set memory pool type
             if let Some(mem_pool_type) = args.mem_pool_type {
                 match mem_pool_type {
-                    PoolType::Greedy => rn_config
+                    PoolType::Greedy => rt_config
                         .with_memory_pool(Arc::new(GreedyMemoryPool::new(memory_limit))),
-                    PoolType::Fair => rn_config
+                    PoolType::Fair => rt_config
                         .with_memory_pool(Arc::new(FairSpillPool::new(memory_limit))),
                 }
             } else {
-                rn_config
+                rt_config
                 .with_memory_pool(Arc::new(GreedyMemoryPool::new(memory_limit)))
             }
         } else {
-            rn_config
+            rt_config
         };
 
-    let runtime_env = create_runtime_env(rn_config.clone())?;
+    let runtime_env = create_runtime_env(rt_config.clone())?;
 
     let mut ctx =
         SessionContext::new_with_config_rt(session_config.clone(), Arc::new(runtime_env));
@@ -207,6 +210,7 @@ async fn main_inner() -> Result<()> {
         format: args.format,
         quiet: args.quiet,
         maxrows: args.maxrows,
+        color: args.color,
     };
 
     let commands = args.command;
diff --git a/datafusion-cli/src/print_options.rs b/datafusion-cli/src/print_options.rs
index b382eb34f62c..f8cd9b3258ef 100644
--- a/datafusion-cli/src/print_options.rs
+++ b/datafusion-cli/src/print_options.rs
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ pub struct PrintOptions {
     pub format: PrintFormat,
     pub quiet: bool,
     pub maxrows: MaxRows,
+    pub color: bool,
 }
 
 fn get_timing_info_str(
diff --git a/docs/source/user-guide/cli.md b/docs/source/user-guide/cli.md
index 95b3e7125cd4..30ab7d1495a5 100644
--- a/docs/source/user-guide/cli.md
+++ b/docs/source/user-guide/cli.md
@@ -111,6 +111,9 @@ OPTIONS:
     -c, --command <COMMAND>...
             Execute the given command string(s), then exit
 
+        --color
+            Enables console syntax highlighting
+
     -f, --file <FILE>...
             Execute commands from file(s), then exit