diff --git a/cmd/sops/main.go b/cmd/sops/main.go
index c82d8cc96..0563a2daa 100644
--- a/cmd/sops/main.go
+++ b/cmd/sops/main.go
@@ -1583,6 +1583,10 @@ func main() {
 			Usage:  "do not check whether the current version is latest during --version",
 			EnvVar: "SOPS_DISABLE_VERSION_CHECK",
 		},
+		cli.BoolFlag{
+			Name:  "check-for-updates",
+			Usage: "do check whether the current version is latest during --version",
+		},
 		cli.StringFlag{
 			Name:   "kms, k",
 			Usage:  "comma separated list of KMS ARNs",
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index 01c2640c1..4eb24216e 100644
--- a/version/version.go
+++ b/version/version.go
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ func PrintVersion(c *cli.Context) {
 
 	out.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf("%s %s", c.App.Name, c.App.Version))
 
-	if c.Bool("disable-version-check") {
+	if c.Bool("disable-version-check") && !c.Bool("check-for-updates") {
 		out.WriteString("\n")
 	} else {
 		upstreamVersion, upstreamURL, err := RetrieveLatestReleaseVersion()
@@ -47,6 +47,12 @@ func PrintVersion(c *cli.Context) {
 				}
 			}
 		}
+		if !c.Bool("check-for-updates") {
+			out.WriteString(
+				"\n[warning] Note that in a future version, sops will no longer check whether the current version is the latest when asking for sops' version." +
+					" If you want to explicitly check for the latest version, add the `--check-for-updates` option to `sops --version`." +
+					" This will hide this deprecation warning and will always check, even if the default behavior changes in the future.\n")
+		}
 	}
 	fmt.Fprintf(c.App.Writer, "%s", out.String())
 }