diff --git a/news/3166.feature b/news/3166.feature
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1d8e049ffe8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/3166.feature
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Log debugging information about pip, in ``pip install --verbose``.
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/commands/install.py b/src/pip/_internal/commands/install.py
index 54e998370bb..a155b944eca 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/commands/install.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/commands/install.py
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 from pip._internal.utils.misc import (
     ensure_dir,
     get_installed_version,
+    get_pip_version,
     protect_pip_from_modification_on_windows,
     write_output,
 )
@@ -239,6 +240,7 @@ def run(self, options, args):
 
         install_options = options.install_options or []
 
+        logger.debug("Using {}".format(get_pip_version()))
         options.use_user_site = decide_user_install(
             options.use_user_site,
             prefix_path=options.prefix_path,
diff --git a/tests/functional/test_install.py b/tests/functional/test_install.py
index 2cff6ca2229..51c8dab4a6e 100644
--- a/tests/functional/test_install.py
+++ b/tests/functional/test_install.py
@@ -1902,3 +1902,10 @@ def test_install_verify_package_name_normalization(script, package_name):
     result = script.pip('install', package_name)
     assert 'Requirement already satisfied: {}'.format(
         package_name) in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_install_logs_pip_version_in_debug(script, shared_data):
+    fake_package = shared_data.packages / 'simple-2.0.tar.gz'
+    result = script.pip('install', '-v', fake_package)
+    pattern = "Using pip .* from .*"
+    assert_re_match(pattern, result.stdout)