diff --git a/botorch/__init__.py b/botorch/__init__.py
index 71bbf95461..e85b64ca93 100644
--- a/botorch/__init__.py
+++ b/botorch/__init__.py
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 
+import os
+import re
+
 from . import acquisition, exceptions, models, optim, posteriors, test_functions
 from .cross_validation import batch_cross_validation
 from .fit import fit_gpytorch_model
@@ -7,6 +10,11 @@
 from .utils import manual_seed
 
 
+# get version string from setup.py
+with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), os.pardir, "setup.py"), "r") as f:
+    __version__ = re.search(r"version=['\"]([^'\"]*)['\"]", f.read(), re.M).group(1)
+
+
 __all__ = [
     "acquisition",
     "batch_cross_validation",