diff --git a/spacy/cli/_util.py b/spacy/cli/_util.py
index 064d368d7..f277988f8 100644
--- a/spacy/cli/_util.py
+++ b/spacy/cli/_util.py
@@ -68,10 +68,13 @@ def parse_config_overrides(args: List[str]) -> Dict[str, Any]:
             opt = opt.replace("--", "").replace("-", "_")
             if "." not in opt:
                 msg.fail(f"{err}: can't override top-level section", exits=1)
-            if not args or args[0].startswith("--"):  # flag with no value
-                value = "true"
+            if "=" in opt:  # we have --opt=value
+                opt, value = opt.split("=", 1)
             else:
-                value = args.pop(0)
+                if not args or args[0].startswith("--"):  # flag with no value
+                    value = "true"
+                else:
+                    value = args.pop(0)
             # Just like we do in the config, we're calling json.loads on the
             # values. But since they come from the CLI, it'd be unintuitive to
             # explicitly mark strings with escaped quotes. So we're working
diff --git a/spacy/tests/test_cli.py b/spacy/tests/test_cli.py
index 4db5e8f44..b5cc6fff8 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -298,9 +298,13 @@ def test_project_config_validation2(config, n_errors):
     [
         # fmt: off
         (["--x.foo", "10"], {"x.foo": 10}),
+        (["--x.foo=10"], {"x.foo": 10}),
         (["--x.foo", "bar"], {"x.foo": "bar"}),
+        (["--x.foo=bar"], {"x.foo": "bar"}),
         (["--x.foo", "--x.bar", "baz"], {"x.foo": True, "x.bar": "baz"}),
-        (["--x.foo", "10.1", "--x.bar", "--x.baz", "false"], {"x.foo": 10.1, "x.bar": True, "x.baz": False})
+        (["--x.foo", "--x.bar=baz"], {"x.foo": True, "x.bar": "baz"}),
+        (["--x.foo", "10.1", "--x.bar", "--x.baz", "false"], {"x.foo": 10.1, "x.bar": True, "x.baz": False}),
+        (["--x.foo", "10.1", "--x.bar", "--x.baz=false"], {"x.foo": 10.1, "x.bar": True, "x.baz": False})
         # fmt: on
     ],
 )