diff --git a/Doc/using/cmdline.rst b/Doc/using/cmdline.rst
index 5adad159e65cc1..9c1c269d1dffb9 100644
--- a/Doc/using/cmdline.rst
+++ b/Doc/using/cmdline.rst
@@ -407,6 +407,10 @@ Miscellaneous options
    * ``-X showalloccount`` to output the total count of allocated objects for
      each type when the program finishes. This only works when Python was built with
      ``COUNT_ALLOCS`` defined.
+   * ``-X importtime`` to show how long each import takes. It shows module name,
+     cumulative time (including nested imports) and self time (exluding nested
+     imports).  Note that its output may be broken in multi threaded application.
+     Typical usage is ``python3 -X importtime -c 'import asyncio'``.
 
    It also allows passing arbitrary values and retrieving them through the
    :data:`sys._xoptions` dictionary.
@@ -423,6 +427,9 @@ Miscellaneous options
    .. versionadded:: 3.6
       The ``-X showalloccount`` option.
 
+   .. versionadded:: 3.7
+      The ``-X importtime`` option.
+
 
 Options you shouldn't use
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2017-09-11-14-28-56.bpo-31415.GBdz7o.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2017-09-11-14-28-56.bpo-31415.GBdz7o.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..52aa16a972be03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core and Builtins/2017-09-11-14-28-56.bpo-31415.GBdz7o.rst	
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Add ``-X importtime`` option to show how long each import takes. It can
+be used to optimize application's startup time.
diff --git a/Python/import.c b/Python/import.c
index 5e841ca782d2bc..0083dd45085c03 100644
--- a/Python/import.c
+++ b/Python/import.c
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ struct _inittab *PyImport_Inittab = _PyImport_Inittab;
 
 static PyObject *initstr = NULL;
 
+static _PyTime_t import_start_time;
+
 /*[clinic input]
 module _imp
 [clinic start generated code]*/
@@ -41,10 +43,36 @@ module _imp
 
 /* Initialize things */
 
+static int
+import_xoptions_importtime(void)
+{
+    int has_key;
+
+    PyObject *xoptions = PySys_GetXOptions();
+    if (xoptions == NULL) {
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+    PyObject *key = PyUnicode_FromString("importtime");
+    if (key == NULL) {
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+    has_key = PyDict_Contains(xoptions, key);
+    Py_DECREF(key);
+    if (has_key < 0) {
+        return -1;
+    }
+    return has_key;
+}
+
 void
 _PyImport_Init(void)
 {
     PyInterpreterState *interp = PyThreadState_Get()->interp;
+
+    import_start_time = _PyTime_GetMonotonicClock();
+
     initstr = PyUnicode_InternFromString("__init__");
     if (initstr == NULL)
         Py_FatalError("Can't initialize import variables");
@@ -1666,10 +1694,70 @@ PyImport_ImportModuleLevelObject(PyObject *name, PyObject *globals,
         }
     }
     else {
+        static int import_level;
+        static _PyTime_t accumulated = 0;
+        _PyTime_t t1 = 0, accumulated_copy;
+        int log_import_time;
+
+        {
+            int importtime = import_xoptions_importtime();
+            if (importtime < 0) {
+                Py_FatalError("import_xoptions_importtime() failed");
+            }
+            log_import_time = importtime;
+        }
+
         Py_XDECREF(mod);
+
+        if (log_import_time) {
+            t1 = _PyTime_GetMonotonicClock();
+            accumulated_copy = accumulated;
+            accumulated = 0;
+
+            time_t ts_sec;
+            int ts_usec;
+            (void)_PyTime_AsTimevalTime_t(t1 - import_start_time,
+                                          &ts_sec, &ts_usec,
+                                          _PyTime_ROUND_CEILING);
+
+            fprintf(stderr, "[%li.%06i] import time: %*simport %s\n",
+                    (long)ts_sec, ts_usec,
+                    import_level*2, "", PyUnicode_AsUTF8(abs_name));
+
+            import_level++;
+        }
+
         mod = _PyObject_CallMethodIdObjArgs(interp->importlib,
                                             &PyId__find_and_load, abs_name,
                                             interp->import_func, NULL);
+
+        if (log_import_time) {
+            _PyTime_t t2 = _PyTime_GetMonotonicClock();
+            _PyTime_t cum = t2 - t1;
+            _PyTime_t tself, tcum;
+            time_t ts_sec;
+            int ts_usec;
+
+            (void)_PyTime_AsTimevalTime_t(t2 - import_start_time,
+                                          &ts_sec, &ts_usec,
+                                          _PyTime_ROUND_CEILING);
+            tcum = _PyTime_AsMicroseconds(cum, _PyTime_ROUND_CEILING);
+            tself = _PyTime_AsMicroseconds(cum - accumulated,
+                                          _PyTime_ROUND_CEILING);
+
+            import_level--;
+            fprintf(stderr, "[%li.%06i] import time: %*simport %s took %lu us",
+                    (long)ts_sec, ts_usec,
+                    import_level*2, "", PyUnicode_AsUTF8(abs_name),
+                    (unsigned long)tself);
+            if (tcum != tself) {
+                fprintf(stderr, " (cumulative: %lu us)", (unsigned long)tcum);
+            }
+            fprintf(stderr, "\n");
+
+            accumulated = accumulated_copy + cum;
+        }
+
         if (mod == NULL) {
             goto error;
         }