diff --git a/cmd/tailscale/status.go b/cmd/tailscale/status.go
index 237ff8a40..4e8631e00 100644
--- a/cmd/tailscale/status.go
+++ b/cmd/tailscale/status.go
@@ -25,13 +25,14 @@ import (
 
 var statusCmd = &ffcli.Command{
 	Name:       "status",
-	ShortUsage: "status [-web] [-json]",
+	ShortUsage: "status [-active] [-web] [-json]",
 	ShortHelp:  "Show state of tailscaled and its connections",
 	Exec:       runStatus,
 	FlagSet: (func() *flag.FlagSet {
 		fs := flag.NewFlagSet("status", flag.ExitOnError)
 		fs.BoolVar(&statusArgs.json, "json", false, "output in JSON format (WARNING: format subject to change)")
 		fs.BoolVar(&statusArgs.web, "web", false, "run webserver with HTML showing status")
+		fs.BoolVar(&statusArgs.active, "active", false, "filter output to only peers with active sessions (not applicable to web mode)")
 		fs.StringVar(&statusArgs.listen, "listen", "127.0.0.1:8384", "listen address; use port 0 for automatic")
 		fs.BoolVar(&statusArgs.browser, "browser", true, "Open a browser in web mode")
 		return fs
@@ -43,6 +44,7 @@ var statusArgs struct {
 	web     bool   // run webserver
 	listen  string // in web mode, webserver address to listen on, empty means auto
 	browser bool   // in web mode, whether to open browser
+	active  bool   // in CLI mode, filter output to only peers with active sessions
 }
 
 func runStatus(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
@@ -120,6 +122,11 @@ func runStatus(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 	f := func(format string, a ...interface{}) { fmt.Fprintf(&buf, format, a...) }
 	for _, peer := range st.Peers() {
 		ps := st.Peer[peer]
+		// TODO: let server report this active bool instead
+		active := !ps.LastWrite.IsZero() && time.Since(ps.LastWrite) < 2*time.Minute
+		if statusArgs.active && !active {
+			continue
+		}
 		f("%s %-7s %-15s %-18s tx=%8d rx=%8d ",
 			peer.ShortString(),
 			ps.OS,
@@ -128,8 +135,6 @@ func runStatus(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
 			ps.TxBytes,
 			ps.RxBytes,
 		)
-		// TODO: let server report this active bool instead
-		active := !ps.LastWrite.IsZero() && time.Since(ps.LastWrite) < 2*time.Minute
 		relay := ps.Relay
 		if active && relay != "" && ps.CurAddr == "" {
 			relay = "*" + relay + "*"