diff --git a/src/simsopt/mhd/vmec.py b/src/simsopt/mhd/vmec.py
index cd4bf4dc6..2d6d5bfbc 100644
--- a/src/simsopt/mhd/vmec.py
+++ b/src/simsopt/mhd/vmec.py
@@ -182,6 +182,7 @@ class Vmec(Optimizable):
         keep_all_files: If ``False``, all ``wout`` output files will be deleted
           except for the first and most recent ones from worker group 0. If
           ``True``, all ``wout`` files will be kept.
+        verbose: Whether to print to stdout when running vmec.
 
     Attributes:
         iter: Number of times VMEC has run.
@@ -199,6 +200,7 @@ def __init__(self,
                  filename: Union[str, None] = None,
                  mpi: Union[MpiPartition, None] = None,
                  keep_all_files: bool = False,
+                 verbose: bool = True,
                  ntheta=50,
                  nphi=50):
 
@@ -220,6 +222,7 @@ def __init__(self,
             raise ValueError('Invalid filename')
 
         self.wout = Struct()
+        self.verbose = verbose
 
         # Get MPI communicator:
         if (mpi is None and MPI is not None):
@@ -252,10 +255,9 @@ def __init__(self,
             self.ictrl[2] = 0  # numsteps
             self.ictrl[3] = 0  # ns_index
             self.ictrl[4] = 0  # iseq
-            verbose = True
             reset_file = ''
             logger.info('About to call runvmec to readin')
-            vmec.runvmec(self.ictrl, filename, verbose, self.fcomm, reset_file)
+            vmec.runvmec(self.ictrl, filename, self.verbose, self.fcomm, reset_file)
             ierr = self.ictrl[1]
             logger.info('Done with runvmec. ierr={}. Calling cleanup next.'.format(ierr))
             # Deallocate arrays allocated by VMEC's fixaray():
@@ -522,9 +524,8 @@ def run(self):
         self.ictrl[2] = 0  # numsteps
         self.ictrl[3] = 0  # ns_index
         self.ictrl[4] = 0  # iseq
-        verbose = True
         reset_file = ''
-        vmec.runvmec(self.ictrl, input_file, verbose, self.fcomm, reset_file)
+        vmec.runvmec(self.ictrl, input_file, self.verbose, self.fcomm, reset_file)
         ierr = self.ictrl[1]
 
         # Deallocate arrays, even if vmec did not converge:
diff --git a/tests/mhd/test_vmec.py b/tests/mhd/test_vmec.py
index 7269dd3c8..8092bb7a3 100755
--- a/tests/mhd/test_vmec.py
+++ b/tests/mhd/test_vmec.py
@@ -263,6 +263,17 @@ def test_2_init_methods(self):
             np.testing.assert_allclose(iota1, iota2, atol=1e-10)
             np.testing.assert_allclose(bmnc1, bmnc2, atol=1e-10)
 
+    def test_verbose(self):
+        """
+        I'm not sure how to confirm that nothing is printed if ``verbose``
+        is set to ``False``, but we can at least make sure the code
+        doesn't crash in this case.
+        """
+        for verbose in [True, False]:
+            filename = os.path.join(TEST_DIR, 'input.li383_low_res')
+            vmec = Vmec(filename, verbose=verbose)
+            vmec.run()
+
     def test_vmec_failure(self):
         """
         Verify that failures of VMEC are correctly caught and represented