diff --git a/libavcodec/options.c b/libavcodec/options.c
index a3a102c0c8..4ac9313f27 100644
--- a/libavcodec/options.c
+++ b/libavcodec/options.c
@@ -370,7 +370,8 @@ static const AVOption options[]={
 {"float", NULL, 0, AV_OPT_TYPE_CONST, {.dbl = FF_AA_FLOAT }, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, V|D, "aa"},
 #endif
 {"qns", "quantizer noise shaping", OFFSET(quantizer_noise_shaping), AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.dbl = DEFAULT }, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, V|E},
-{"threads", NULL, OFFSET(thread_count), AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.dbl = 1 }, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, V|E|D},
+{"threads", NULL, OFFSET(thread_count), AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.dbl = 1 }, 0, INT_MAX, V|E|D, "threads"},
+{"auto", "detect a good number of threads", 0, AV_OPT_TYPE_CONST, {.dbl = 0 }, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, V|E|D, "threads"},
 {"me_threshold", "motion estimaton threshold", OFFSET(me_threshold), AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.dbl = DEFAULT }, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, V|E},
 {"mb_threshold", "macroblock threshold", OFFSET(mb_threshold), AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.dbl = DEFAULT }, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, V|E},
 {"dc", "intra_dc_precision", OFFSET(intra_dc_precision), AV_OPT_TYPE_INT, {.dbl = 0 }, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, V|E},