diff --git a/modules/cmd_args.py b/modules/cmd_args.py
index 016a33d10..a683c99e8 100644
--- a/modules/cmd_args.py
+++ b/modules/cmd_args.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ parser.add_argument("--dump-sysinfo", action='store_true', help="launch.py argum
 parser.add_argument("--loglevel", type=str, help="log level; one of: CRITICAL, ERROR, WARNING, INFO, DEBUG", default=None)
 parser.add_argument("--do-not-download-clip", action='store_true', help="do not download CLIP model even if it's not included in the checkpoint")
 parser.add_argument("--data-dir", type=normalized_filepath, default=os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))), help="base path where all user data is stored")
+parser.add_argument("--models-dir", type=normalized_filepath, default=None, help="base path where models are stored; overrides --data-dir")
 parser.add_argument("--config", type=normalized_filepath, default=sd_default_config, help="path to config which constructs model",)
 parser.add_argument("--ckpt", type=normalized_filepath, default=sd_model_file, help="path to checkpoint of stable diffusion model; if specified, this checkpoint will be added to the list of checkpoints and loaded",)
 parser.add_argument("--ckpt-dir", type=normalized_filepath, default=None, help="Path to directory with stable diffusion checkpoints")
diff --git a/modules/paths_internal.py b/modules/paths_internal.py
index cf9da45ab..884984c9c 100644
--- a/modules/paths_internal.py
+++ b/modules/paths_internal.py
@@ -24,11 +24,13 @@ default_sd_model_file = sd_model_file
 # Parse the --data-dir flag first so we can use it as a base for our other argument default values
 parser_pre = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
 parser_pre.add_argument("--data-dir", type=str, default=os.path.dirname(modules_path), help="base path where all user data is stored", )
+parser_pre.add_argument("--models-dir", type=str, default=None, help="base path where models are stored; overrides --data-dir", )
 cmd_opts_pre = parser_pre.parse_known_args()[0]
 
 data_path = cmd_opts_pre.data_dir
+models_override = cmd_opts_pre.models_dir
 
-models_path = os.path.join(data_path, "models")
+models_path = models_override if models_override else os.path.join(data_path, "models")
 extensions_dir = os.path.join(data_path, "extensions")
 extensions_builtin_dir = os.path.join(script_path, "extensions-builtin")
 config_states_dir = os.path.join(script_path, "config_states")