diff --git a/qwarc/cli.py b/qwarc/cli.py
index a69b1d9..25e1c6e 100644
--- a/qwarc/cli.py
+++ b/qwarc/cli.py
@@ -9,19 +9,24 @@ import qwarc.version
 import sys
 
 
-def setup_logging(logFilename):
+def setup_logging(logFilename, logLevel, logLevelStderr):
+	if logLevelStderr is None:
+		logLevelStderr = logLevel
+
 	rootLogger = logging.getLogger()
 	rootLogger.handlers = []
-	rootLogger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
+	rootLogger.setLevel(min(logLevel, logLevelStderr))
 
 	formatter = qwarc.utils.LogFormatter()
 
 	fileHandler = logging.FileHandler(logFilename)
 	fileHandler.setFormatter(formatter)
+	fileHandler.setLevel(logLevel)
 	rootLogger.addHandler(fileHandler)
 
 	stderrHandler = logging.StreamHandler()
 	stderrHandler.setFormatter(formatter)
+	stderrHandler.setLevel(logLevelStderr)
 	rootLogger.addHandler(stderrHandler)
 
 
@@ -43,6 +48,8 @@ def main():
 	parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(formatter_class = argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
 	parser.add_argument('--version', action = 'version', version = f'qwarc {qwarc.version.__version__}')
 	parser.add_argument('--log', metavar = 'LOGFILE', default = './qwarc.log')
+	parser.add_argument('--loglevel', metavar = 'LEVEL', help = 'verbosity of the log file', choices = ('INFO', 'DEBUG'), default = 'INFO')
+	parser.add_argument('--loglevelstderr', metavar = 'LEVEL', help = 'verbosity of the log messages on stderr; set equal to the log file level if None', choices = (None, 'CRITICAL', 'ERROR', 'WARNING', 'INFO', 'DEBUG'), default = None)
 	parser.add_argument('--database', metavar = 'DBFILE', default = './qwarc.db')
 	parser.add_argument('--warc', metavar = 'PREFIX', help = 'prefix for the WARC filenames', default = './qwarc')
 	parser.add_argument('--concurrency', type = int, default = 1)
@@ -53,11 +60,13 @@ def main():
 	parser.add_argument('specfile')
 
 	args = parser.parse_args()
+	args.loglevel = getattr(logging, args.loglevel)
+	args.loglevelstderr = getattr(logging, args.loglevelstderr) if args.loglevelstderr is not None else args.loglevel
 
 	if not check_files(args.specfile, args.log):
 		sys.exit(1)
 
-	setup_logging(args.log)
+	setup_logging(args.log, args.loglevel, args.loglevelstderr)
 
 	spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location('spec', args.specfile)
 	specMod = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)