diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 95d153b0e..d3dbe0b1e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ Each version section may have have subsections for: _Added_, _Changed_, _Removed
 ### Added
 - Added a flag `--fixed-param-names` to prevent certain parameters from being optimized during training.
   This is useful if you want to keep pre-trained embeddings fixed during training.
+- Added a flag `--dry-run` to `sockeye.train` to not perform any actual training, but print statistics about the model
+  and mode of operation.
 
 ## [1.17.3]
 ### Changed
diff --git a/sockeye/arguments.py b/sockeye/arguments.py
index 722854e87..53708c89b 100644
--- a/sockeye/arguments.py
+++ b/sockeye/arguments.py
@@ -926,6 +926,11 @@ def add_training_args(params):
                               default=-1,
                               help='Keep only the last n params files, use -1 to keep all files. Default: %(default)s')
 
+    train_params.add_argument('--dry-run',
+                              action='store_true',
+                              help="Do not perform any actual training, but print statistics about the model"
+                              " and mode of operation.")
+
 
 def add_train_cli_args(params):
     add_training_io_args(params)
diff --git a/sockeye/train.py b/sockeye/train.py
index a886bef1c..32dd30b97 100644
--- a/sockeye/train.py
+++ b/sockeye/train.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 import os
 import shutil
 import sys
+import tempfile
 from contextlib import ExitStack
 from typing import Any, cast, Optional, Dict, List, Tuple
 
@@ -724,6 +725,13 @@ def main():
     arguments.add_train_cli_args(params)
     args = params.parse_args()
 
+    if args.dry_run:
+        # Modify arguments so that we write to a temporary directory and
+        # perform 0 training iterations
+        temp_dir = tempfile.TemporaryDirectory()  # Will be automatically removed
+        args.output = temp_dir.name
+        args.max_updates = 0
+
     utils.seedRNGs(args.seed)
 
     check_arg_compatibility(args)
diff --git a/test/unit/test_arguments.py b/test/unit/test_arguments.py
index f9b73430f..0522450c8 100644
--- a/test/unit/test_arguments.py
+++ b/test/unit/test_arguments.py
@@ -173,7 +173,8 @@ def test_model_parameters(test_params, expected_params):
               decode_and_evaluate_use_cpu=False,
               decode_and_evaluate_device_id=None,
               seed=13,
-              keep_last_params=-1)),
+              keep_last_params=-1,
+              dry_run=False)),
 ])
 def test_training_arg(test_params, expected_params):
     _test_args(test_params, expected_params, arguments.add_training_args)