diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 778a7b3263..690817ba6c 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -92,9 +92,11 @@
     "async": "^2.5.0",
     "bl": "^1.2.1",
     "boom": "^5.2.0",
+    "byteman": "^1.3.5",
     "cids": "~0.5.1",
     "debug": "^3.0.1",
     "fsm-event": "^2.1.0",
+    "get-folder-size": "^1.0.0",
     "glob": "^7.1.2",
     "hapi": "^16.5.2",
     "hapi-set-header": "^1.0.2",
@@ -134,6 +136,7 @@
     "peer-book": "~0.5.0",
     "peer-id": "~0.10.0",
     "peer-info": "~0.11.0",
+    "progress": "^2.0.0",
     "promisify-es6": "^1.0.3",
     "pull-file": "^1.0.0",
     "pull-paramap": "^1.2.2",
diff --git a/src/cli/commands/files/add.js b/src/cli/commands/files/add.js
index 82fe7ecb18..e3e57c0a1f 100644
--- a/src/cli/commands/files/add.js
+++ b/src/cli/commands/files/add.js
@@ -8,8 +8,12 @@ const pull = require('pull-stream')
 const paramap = require('pull-paramap')
 const zip = require('pull-zip')
 const toPull = require('stream-to-pull-stream')
+const getFolderSize = require('get-folder-size')
+const byteman = require('byteman')
+const waterfall = require('async/waterfall')
 const utils = require('../../utils')
 const print = require('../../utils').print
+const createProgressBar = require('../../utils').createProgressBar
 
 const WRAPPER = 'wrapper/'
 
@@ -40,6 +44,14 @@ function checkPath (inPath, recursive) {
   return inPath
 }
 
+function getTotalBytes (path, recursive, cb) {
+  if (recursive) {
+    getFolderSize(path, cb)
+  } else {
+    fs.stat(path, (err, stat) => cb(err, stat.size))
+  }
+}
+
 function addPipeline (index, addStream, list, argv) {
   const {
     wrapWithDirectory,
@@ -102,6 +114,12 @@ module.exports = {
   describe: 'Add a file to IPFS using the UnixFS data format',
 
   builder: {
+    progress: {
+      alias: 'p',
+      type: 'boolean',
+      default: true,
+      describe: 'Stream progress data'
+    },
     recursive: {
       alias: 'r',
       type: 'boolean',
@@ -185,34 +203,45 @@ module.exports = {
     }
     const ipfs = argv.ipfs
 
-    // TODO: revist when interface-ipfs-core exposes pull-streams
-    let createAddStream = (cb) => {
-      ipfs.files.createAddStream(options, (err, stream) => {
-        cb(err, err ? null : toPull.transform(stream))
-      })
-    }
-
-    if (typeof ipfs.files.createAddPullStream === 'function') {
-      createAddStream = (cb) => {
-        cb(null, ipfs.files.createAddPullStream(options))
-      }
-    }
+    let list = []
+    let currentBytes = 0
+
+    waterfall([
+      (next) => glob(path.join(inPath, '/**/*'), next),
+      (globResult, next) => {
+        list = globResult.length === 0 ? [inPath] : globResult
+
+        getTotalBytes(inPath, argv.recursive, next)
+      },
+      (totalBytes, next) => {
+        if (argv.progress) {
+          const bar = createProgressBar(totalBytes)
+          options.progress = function (byteLength) {
+            currentBytes += byteLength
+            bar.tick(byteLength, {progress: byteman(currentBytes, 2, 'MB')})
+          }
+        }
 
-    createAddStream((err, addStream) => {
-      if (err) {
-        throw err
-      }
+        // TODO: revist when interface-ipfs-core exposes pull-streams
 
-      glob(path.join(inPath, '/**/*'), (err, list) => {
-        if (err) {
-          throw err
+        let createAddStream = (cb) => {
+          ipfs.files.createAddStream(options, (err, stream) => {
+            cb(err, err ? null : toPull.transform(stream))
+          })
         }
-        if (list.length === 0) {
-          list = [inPath]
+
+        if (typeof ipfs.files.createAddPullStream === 'function') {
+          createAddStream = (cb) => {
+            cb(null, ipfs.files.createAddPullStream(options))
+          }
         }
 
-        addPipeline(index, addStream, list, argv)
-      })
+        createAddStream(next)
+      }
+    ], (err, addStream) => {
+      if (err) throw err
+
+      addPipeline(index, addStream, list, argv)
     })
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/cli/utils.js b/src/cli/utils.js
index 76ab67d969..4565fc316e 100644
--- a/src/cli/utils.js
+++ b/src/cli/utils.js
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ const path = require('path')
 const debug = require('debug')
 const log = debug('cli')
 log.error = debug('cli:error')
+const Progress = require('progress')
+const byteman = require('byteman')
 
 exports = module.exports
 
@@ -85,3 +87,16 @@ exports.print = (msg, newline) => {
     process.stdout.write(msg)
   }
 }
+
+exports.createProgressBar = (totalBytes) => {
+  const total = byteman(totalBytes, 2, 'MB')
+  const barFormat = `:progress / ${total} [:bar] :percent :etas`
+
+  // 16 MB / 34 MB [===========             ] 48% 5.8s //
+  return new Progress(barFormat, {
+    incomplete: ' ',
+    clear: true,
+    stream: process.stdout,
+    total: totalBytes
+  })
+}
diff --git a/test/cli/progress-bar.js b/test/cli/progress-bar.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..21708a59f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/cli/progress-bar.js
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+/* eslint-env mocha */
+'use strict'
+
+const expect = require('chai').expect
+const createProgressBar = require('../../src/cli/utils').createProgressBar
+
+describe('progress bar', () => {
+  it('created with the correct properties', () => {
+    const total = 1000
+
+    const bar = createProgressBar(total)
+    expect(bar.total).to.eql(total)
+    expect(typeof bar.tick).to.eql('function')
+  })
+})