diff --git a/doc/qutebrowser.1.asciidoc b/doc/qutebrowser.1.asciidoc
index dd7857c80..2a403de5f 100644
--- a/doc/qutebrowser.1.asciidoc
+++ b/doc/qutebrowser.1.asciidoc
@@ -96,6 +96,9 @@ show it.
 *--pdb-postmortem*::
     Drop into pdb on exceptions.
 
+*--temp-basedir*::
+    Use a temporary basedir.
+
 *--qt-name* 'NAME'::
     Set the window name.
 
diff --git a/qutebrowser/app.py b/qutebrowser/app.py
index 2928b3bf8..02f8af907 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/app.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/app.py
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ import configparser
 import functools
 import json
 import time
+import shutil
+import tempfile
 
 from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QMessageBox
 from PyQt5.QtGui import QDesktopServices, QPixmap, QIcon, QCursor, QWindow
@@ -66,6 +68,9 @@ def run(args):
         print(version.GPL_BOILERPLATE.strip())
         sys.exit(0)
 
+    if args.temp_basedir:
+        args.basedir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+
     quitter = Quitter(args)
     objreg.register('quitter', quitter)
 
@@ -638,6 +643,9 @@ class Quitter:
         # Re-enable faulthandler to stdout, then remove crash log
         log.destroy.debug("Deactivating crash log...")
         objreg.get('crash-handler').destroy_crashlogfile()
+        # Delete temp basedir
+        if self._args.temp_basedir:
+            shutil.rmtree(self._args.basedir)
         # If we don't kill our custom handler here we might get segfaults
         log.destroy.debug("Deactiving message handler...")
         qInstallMessageHandler(None)
diff --git a/qutebrowser/qutebrowser.py b/qutebrowser/qutebrowser.py
index 21604c406..03f3c582b 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/qutebrowser.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/qutebrowser.py
@@ -94,6 +94,8 @@ def get_argparser():
                        "show a crash dialog.")
     debug.add_argument('--pdb-postmortem', action='store_true',
                        help="Drop into pdb on exceptions.")
+    debug.add_argument('--temp-basedir', action='store_true', help="Use a "
+                       "temporary basedir.")
     # For the Qt args, we use store_const with const=True rather than
     # store_true because we want the default to be None, to make
     # utils.qt:get_args easier.