diff --git a/doc/protocols.texi b/doc/protocols.texi
index a329f59fe3..563aee6cc7 100644
--- a/doc/protocols.texi
+++ b/doc/protocols.texi
@@ -1535,7 +1535,15 @@ The accepted URL syntax is:
 sctp://@var{host}:@var{port}[?@var{options}]
 @end example
 
-The protocol accepts the following options:
+@var{options} contains a list of &-separated options of the form
+@var{key}=@var{val}. Standard percent-encoding (and using the plus sign for
+space) can be used to escape keys and values.
+
+Options can also can be specified via command line options (or in code via
+@code{AVOption}s).
+
+The list of supported options follows.
+
 @table @option
 @item listen
 If set to any value, listen for an incoming connection. Outgoing connection is done by default.
diff --git a/libavformat/sctp.c b/libavformat/sctp.c
index 9d9e90097e..4122fbe312 100644
--- a/libavformat/sctp.c
+++ b/libavformat/sctp.c
@@ -185,7 +185,6 @@ static int sctp_open(URLContext *h, const char *uri, int flags)
     int fd         = -1;
     SCTPContext *s = h->priv_data;
     const char *p;
-    char buf[256];
     int ret;
     char hostname[1024], proto[1024], path[1024];
     char portstr[10];
@@ -201,10 +200,9 @@ static int sctp_open(URLContext *h, const char *uri, int flags)
 
     p = strchr(uri, '?');
     if (p) {
-        if (av_find_info_tag(buf, sizeof(buf), "listen", p))
-            s->listen = 1;
-        if (av_find_info_tag(buf, sizeof(buf), "max_streams", p))
-            s->max_streams = strtol(buf, NULL, 10);
+        ret = ff_parse_opts_from_query_string(s, p, 0);
+        if (ret < 0)
+            return ret;
     }
 
     hints.ai_family   = AF_UNSPEC;