diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ab4095f799d..ab7870c4d22 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Ingester: added new metric `cortex_ingester_active_series` to track active series more accurately. Also added options to control whether active series tracking is enabled (`-ingester.active-series-enabled`, defaults to false), and how often this metric is updated (`-ingester.active-series-update-period`) and max idle time for series to be considered inactive (`-ingester.active-series-idle-timeout`). #3153
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Blocksconvert – Builder: download plan file locally before processing it. #3209
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Store-gateway: added zone-aware replication support to blocks replication in the store-gateway. #3200
+* [ENHANCEMENT] Added `-version` flag to Cortex. #3233
 * [BUGFIX] No-longer-needed ingester operations for queries triggered by queriers and rulers are now canceled. #3178
 * [BUGFIX] Ruler: directories in the configured `rules-path` will be removed on startup and shutdown in order to ensure they don't persist between runs. #3195
 * [BUGFIX] Handle hash-collisions in the query path. #3192
diff --git a/cmd/cortex/main.go b/cmd/cortex/main.go
index 8340e833112..ec72a041207 100644
--- a/cmd/cortex/main.go
+++ b/cmd/cortex/main.go
@@ -61,6 +61,8 @@ func main() {
 		eventSampleRate      int
 		ballastBytes         int
 		mutexProfileFraction int
+		printVersion         bool
+		printModules         bool
 	)
 
 	configFile, expandENV := parseConfigFileParameter(os.Args[1:])
@@ -86,6 +88,8 @@ func main() {
 	flag.IntVar(&eventSampleRate, "event.sample-rate", 0, "How often to sample observability events (0 = never).")
 	flag.IntVar(&ballastBytes, "mem-ballast-size-bytes", 0, "Size of memory ballast to allocate.")
 	flag.IntVar(&mutexProfileFraction, "debug.mutex-profile-fraction", 0, "Fraction at which mutex profile vents will be reported, 0 to disable")
+	flag.BoolVar(&printVersion, "version", false, "Print Cortex version and exit.")
+	flag.BoolVar(&printModules, "modules", false, "List available values that can be used as target.")
 
 	usage := flag.CommandLine.Usage
 	flag.CommandLine.Usage = func() { /* don't do anything by default, we will print usage ourselves, but only when requested. */ }
@@ -106,6 +110,11 @@ func main() {
 		}
 	}
 
+	if printVersion {
+		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stdout, version.Print("Cortex"))
+		return
+	}
+
 	// Validate the config once both the config file has been loaded
 	// and CLI flags parsed.
 	err = cfg.Validate(util.Logger)
@@ -118,7 +127,7 @@ func main() {
 
 	// Continue on if -modules flag is given. Code handling the
 	// -modules flag will not start cortex.
-	if testMode && !cfg.ListModules {
+	if testMode && !printModules {
 		DumpYaml(&cfg)
 		return
 	}
@@ -151,7 +160,7 @@ func main() {
 	t, err := cortex.New(cfg)
 	util.CheckFatal("initializing cortex", err)
 
-	if t.Cfg.ListModules {
+	if printModules {
 		allDeps := t.ModuleManager.DependenciesForModule(cortex.All)
 
 		for _, m := range t.ModuleManager.UserVisibleModuleNames() {
@@ -167,12 +176,7 @@ func main() {
 
 		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stdout)
 		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stdout, "Modules marked with * are included in target All.")
-
-		// in test mode we cannot call os.Exit, it will stop to whole test process.
-		if testMode {
-			return
-		}
-		os.Exit(2)
+		return
 	}
 
 	level.Info(util.Logger).Log("msg", "Starting Cortex", "version", version.Info())
diff --git a/cmd/cortex/main_test.go b/cmd/cortex/main_test.go
index e053f834e2d..d5c5a14a1af 100644
--- a/cmd/cortex/main_test.go
+++ b/cmd/cortex/main_test.go
@@ -80,6 +80,11 @@ func TestFlagParsing(t *testing.T) {
 			stderrMessage: "the Querier configuration in YAML has been specified as an empty YAML node",
 		},
 
+		"version": {
+			arguments:     []string{"-version"},
+			stdoutMessage: "Cortex, version",
+		},
+
 		// we cannot test the happy path, as cortex would then fully start
 	} {
 		t.Run(name, func(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/pkg/cortex/cortex.go b/pkg/cortex/cortex.go
index 43783f8189b..5575a76520e 100644
--- a/pkg/cortex/cortex.go
+++ b/pkg/cortex/cortex.go
@@ -75,7 +75,6 @@ type Config struct {
 	AuthEnabled bool   `yaml:"auth_enabled"`
 	PrintConfig bool   `yaml:"-"`
 	HTTPPrefix  string `yaml:"http_prefix"`
-	ListModules bool   `yaml:"-"` // No yaml for this, it only works with flags.
 
 	API            api.Config               `yaml:"api"`
 	Server         server.Config            `yaml:"server"`
@@ -111,7 +110,6 @@ func (c *Config) RegisterFlags(f *flag.FlagSet) {
 	c.Server.MetricsNamespace = "cortex"
 	c.Server.ExcludeRequestInLog = true
 	f.StringVar(&c.Target, "target", All, "The Cortex module to run. Use \"-modules\" command line flag to get a list of available modules, and to see which modules are included in \"All\".")
-	f.BoolVar(&c.ListModules, "modules", false, "List available values to be use as target. Cannot be used in YAML config.")
 	f.BoolVar(&c.AuthEnabled, "auth.enabled", true, "Set to false to disable auth.")
 	f.BoolVar(&c.PrintConfig, "print.config", false, "Print the config and exit.")
 	f.StringVar(&c.HTTPPrefix, "http.prefix", "/api/prom", "HTTP path prefix for Cortex API.")