diff --git a/core/commands/add.go b/core/commands/add.go
index d0c7596fc..3a95f91db 100644
--- a/core/commands/add.go
+++ b/core/commands/add.go
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ You can now refer to the added file in a gateway, like so:
 		cmds.OptionRecursivePath, // a builtin option that allows recursive paths (-r, --recursive)
 		cmds.BoolOption(quietOptionName, "q", "Write minimal output.").Default(false),
 		cmds.BoolOption(silentOptionName, "Write no output.").Default(false),
-		cmds.BoolOption(progressOptionName, "p", "Stream progress data.").Default(true),
+		cmds.BoolOption(progressOptionName, "p", "Stream progress data."),
 		cmds.BoolOption(trickleOptionName, "t", "Use trickle-dag format for dag generation.").Default(false),
 		cmds.BoolOption(onlyHashOptionName, "n", "Only chunk and hash - do not write to disk.").Default(false),
 		cmds.BoolOption(wrapOptionName, "w", "Wrap files with a directory object.").Default(false),
@@ -81,6 +81,11 @@ You can now refer to the added file in a gateway, like so:
 			return nil
 		}
 
+		_, found, _ := req.Option(progressOptionName).Bool()
+		if !found {
+			req.SetOption(progressOptionName, true)
+		}
+
 		sizeFile, ok := req.Files().(files.SizeFile)
 		if !ok {
 			// we don't need to error, the progress bar just won't know how big the files are
diff --git a/test/sharness/t0040-add-and-cat.sh b/test/sharness/t0040-add-and-cat.sh
index 4ca68abe8..529fed860 100755
--- a/test/sharness/t0040-add-and-cat.sh
+++ b/test/sharness/t0040-add-and-cat.sh
@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ test_add_cat_5MB
 
 test_add_cat_expensive
 
-test_add_named_pipe " Post http://$API_ADDR/api/v0/add?encoding=json&r=true&stream-channels=true:"
+test_add_named_pipe " Post http://$API_ADDR/api/v0/add?encoding=json&progress=true&r=true&stream-channels=true:"
 
 test_kill_ipfs_daemon