diff --git a/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-1.12.xml b/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-1.12.xml
index 29943e3e6..89ec92094 100644
--- a/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-1.12.xml
+++ b/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-1.12.xml
@@ -79,6 +79,11 @@
 
       <listitem><para><command>nix add-to-store</command> (970366266b8df712f5f9cedb45af183ef5a8357f).</para></listitem>
 
+      <listitem><para><command>nix upgrade-nix</command> upgrades Nix
+      to the latest stable version. This requires that Nix is
+      installed in a profile. (Thus it won’t work on NixOS, or if it’s
+      installed outside of the Nix store.)</para></listitem>
+
       <listitem><para>Progress indicator.</para></listitem>
 
       <listitem><para>All options are available as flags now
diff --git a/src/nix/command.hh b/src/nix/command.hh
index 6b34e3881..a7863c49f 100644
--- a/src/nix/command.hh
+++ b/src/nix/command.hh
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 
 namespace nix {
 
+extern std::string programPath;
+
 struct Value;
 class Bindings;
 class EvalState;
diff --git a/src/nix/main.cc b/src/nix/main.cc
index 06bb8a1c3..8f6bbe8f5 100644
--- a/src/nix/main.cc
+++ b/src/nix/main.cc
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ void chrootHelper(int argc, char * * argv);
 
 namespace nix {
 
+std::string programPath;
+
 struct NixArgs : virtual MultiCommand, virtual MixCommonArgs
 {
     NixArgs() : MultiCommand(*RegisterCommand::commands), MixCommonArgs("nix")
@@ -78,7 +80,8 @@ void mainWrapped(int argc, char * * argv)
     initNix();
     initGC();
 
-    string programName = baseNameOf(argv[0]);
+    programPath = argv[0];
+    string programName = baseNameOf(programPath);
 
     {
         auto legacy = (*RegisterLegacyCommand::commands)[programName];
diff --git a/src/nix/upgrade-nix.cc b/src/nix/upgrade-nix.cc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..758bbbc68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/nix/upgrade-nix.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+#include "command.hh"
+#include "store-api.hh"
+#include "download.hh"
+#include "eval.hh"
+#include "attr-path.hh"
+
+using namespace nix;
+
+struct CmdUpgradeNix : StoreCommand
+{
+    Path profileDir;
+
+    CmdUpgradeNix()
+    {
+        mkFlag()
+            .longName("profile")
+            .shortName('p')
+            .labels({"profile-dir"})
+            .description("the Nix profile to upgrade")
+            .dest(&profileDir);
+    }
+
+    std::string name() override
+    {
+        return "upgrade-nix";
+    }
+
+    std::string description() override
+    {
+        return "upgrade Nix to the latest stable version";
+    }
+
+    Examples examples() override
+    {
+        return {
+            Example{
+                "To upgrade Nix to the latest stable version:",
+                "nix upgrade-nix"
+            },
+            Example{
+                "To upgrade Nix in a specific profile:",
+                "nix upgrade-nix -p /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/alice/profile"
+            },
+        };
+    }
+
+    void run(ref<Store> store) override
+    {
+        settings.pureEval = true;
+
+        if (profileDir == "")
+            profileDir = getProfileDir(store);
+
+        printInfo("upgrading Nix in profile '%s'", profileDir);
+
+        Path storePath;
+        {
+            Activity act(*logger, lvlInfo, actUnknown, "querying latest Nix version");
+            storePath = getLatestNix(store);
+        }
+
+        {
+            Activity act(*logger, lvlInfo, actUnknown, fmt("downloading '%s'...", storePath));
+            store->ensurePath(storePath);
+        }
+
+        {
+            Activity act(*logger, lvlInfo, actUnknown, fmt("verifying that '%s' works...", storePath));
+            auto program = storePath + "/bin/nix-env";
+            auto s = runProgram(program, false, {"--version"});
+            if (s.find("Nix") == std::string::npos)
+                throw Error("could not verify that '%s' works", program);
+        }
+
+        {
+            Activity act(*logger, lvlInfo, actUnknown, fmt("installing '%s' into profile '%s'...", storePath, profileDir));
+            runProgram(settings.nixBinDir + "/nix-env", false,
+                {"--profile", profileDir, "-i", storePath, "--no-sandbox"});
+        }
+    }
+
+    /* Return the profile in which Nix is installed. */
+    Path getProfileDir(ref<Store> store)
+    {
+        Path where;
+
+        for (auto & dir : tokenizeString<Strings>(getEnv("PATH"), ":"))
+            if (pathExists(dir + "/nix-env")) {
+                where = dir;
+                break;
+            }
+
+        if (where == "")
+            throw Error("couldn't figure out how Nix is installed, so I can't upgrade it");
+
+        printInfo("found Nix in '%s'", where);
+
+        if (hasPrefix(where, "/run/current-system"))
+            throw Error("Nix on NixOS must be upgraded via 'nixos-rebuild'");
+
+        Path profileDir;
+        Path userEnv;
+
+        if (baseNameOf(where) != "bin" ||
+            !hasSuffix(userEnv = canonPath(profileDir = dirOf(where), true), "user-environment"))
+            throw Error("directory '%s' does not appear to be part of a Nix profile", where);
+
+        if (!store->isValidPath(userEnv))
+            throw Error("directory '%s' is not in the Nix store", userEnv);
+
+        return profileDir;
+    }
+
+    /* Return the store path of the latest stable Nix. */
+    Path getLatestNix(ref<Store> store)
+    {
+        // FIXME: use nixos.org?
+        auto req = DownloadRequest("https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/raw/master/nixos/modules/installer/tools/nix-fallback-paths.nix");
+        auto res = getDownloader()->download(req);
+
+        EvalState state(Strings(), store);
+        auto v = state.allocValue();
+        state.eval(state.parseExprFromString(*res.data, "/no-such-path"), *v);
+        Bindings & bindings(*state.allocBindings(0));
+        auto v2 = findAlongAttrPath(state, settings.thisSystem, bindings, *v);
+
+        return state.forceString(*v2);
+    }
+};
+
+static RegisterCommand r1(make_ref<CmdUpgradeNix>());