diff --git a/anchor/client/src/cli.rs b/anchor/client/src/cli.rs
index fec7a719c..a8111f980 100644
--- a/anchor/client/src/cli.rs
+++ b/anchor/client/src/cli.rs
@@ -281,6 +281,13 @@ pub struct Node {
     )]
     pub use_zero_ports: bool,
 
+    #[clap(
+        long,
+        help = "Specify the target number of connected peers",
+        action = ArgAction::Set,
+    )]
+    pub target_peers: Option<usize>,
+
     // Prometheus metrics HTTP server related arguments
     #[clap(
         long,
diff --git a/anchor/client/src/config.rs b/anchor/client/src/config.rs
index a909f389f..89f5428d7 100644
--- a/anchor/client/src/config.rs
+++ b/anchor/client/src/config.rs
@@ -182,6 +182,9 @@ pub fn from_cli(cli_args: &Node, global_config: GlobalConfig) -> Result<Config,
 
     config.network.subscribe_all_subnets = cli_args.subscribe_all_subnets;
 
+    if let Some(target_peers) = cli_args.target_peers {
+        config.network.target_peers = target_peers;
+    }
     // Network related - set peer scoring configuration
     config.network.disable_gossipsub_peer_scoring = cli_args.disable_gossipsub_peer_scoring;
     config.network.disable_gossipsub_topic_scoring = cli_args.disable_gossipsub_topic_scoring;