diff --git a/src/app.rs b/src/app.rs
index 0e61cc7d50..a9ac691e13 100644
--- a/src/app.rs
+++ b/src/app.rs
@@ -263,8 +263,8 @@ impl App {
                     .overrides_with("wrap")
                     .takes_value(true)
                     .value_name("mode")
-                    .possible_values(&["character", "never"])
-                    .default_value("character")
+                    .possible_values(&["auto", "never", "character"])
+                    .default_value("auto")
                     .help("Specify the text-wrapping mode.")
                     .long_help("Specify the text-wrapping mode."),
             ).arg(
@@ -339,10 +339,10 @@ impl App {
 
     pub fn config(&self) -> Result<Config> {
         let files = self.files();
+        let output_components = self.output_components()?;
 
         Ok(Config {
             true_color: is_truecolor_terminal(),
-            output_components: self.output_components()?,
             language: self.matches.value_of("language"),
             output_wrap: if !self.interactive_output {
                 // We don't have the tty width when piping to another program.
@@ -351,7 +351,12 @@ impl App {
             } else {
                 match self.matches.value_of("wrap") {
                     Some("character") => OutputWrap::Character,
-                    Some("never") | _ => OutputWrap::None,
+                    Some("never") => OutputWrap::None,
+                    Some("auto") | _ => if output_components.plain() {
+                        OutputWrap::None
+                    } else {
+                        OutputWrap::Character
+                    },
                 }
             },
             colored_output: match self.matches.value_of("color") {
@@ -395,6 +400,7 @@ impl App {
                 .or_else(|| env::var("BAT_THEME").ok())
                 .unwrap_or(String::from(BAT_THEME_DEFAULT)),
             line_range: transpose(self.matches.value_of("line-range").map(LineRange::from))?,
+            output_components,
         })
     }
 
diff --git a/src/style.rs b/src/style.rs
index 4c36265d17..efd83697b1 100644
--- a/src/style.rs
+++ b/src/style.rs
@@ -78,4 +78,8 @@ impl OutputComponents {
     pub fn numbers(&self) -> bool {
         self.0.contains(&OutputComponent::Numbers)
     }
+
+    pub fn plain(&self) -> bool {
+        self.0.is_empty()
+    }
 }