diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
index 1ab5b2e28a70..93acfa2e0740 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
@@ -519,6 +519,7 @@ export const cliOptionsConfig: VitestCLIOptions = {
   exclude: {
     description: 'Additional file globs to be excluded from test',
     argument: '<glob>',
+    array: true,
   },
   expandSnapshotDiff: {
     description: 'Show full diff when snapshot fails',
diff --git a/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts b/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts
index 841657df52b8..0de6b9437469 100644
--- a/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts
+++ b/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts
@@ -392,4 +392,13 @@ test('public parseCLI works correctly', () => {
       'color': true,
     },
   })
+
+  expect(parseCLI('vitest --exclude=docs --exclude=demo')).toEqual({
+    filter: [],
+    options: {
+      'exclude': ['docs', 'demo'],
+      '--': [],
+      'color': true,
+    },
+  })
 })