diff --git a/spacy/displacy/__init__.py b/spacy/displacy/__init__.py
index 45671612f..5b35b865d 100644
--- a/spacy/displacy/__init__.py
+++ b/spacy/displacy/__init__.py
@@ -3,13 +3,14 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 from .render import DependencyRenderer, EntityRenderer
 from ..tokens import Doc
-from ..util import prints
+from ..util import prints, is_in_jupyter
 
 
 _html = {}
+IS_JUPYTER = is_in_jupyter()
 
 
-def render(docs, style='dep', page=False, minify=False, jupyter=False, options={}):
+def render(docs, style='dep', page=False, minify=False, jupyter=IS_JUPYTER, options={}):
     """Render displaCy visualisation.
 
     docs (list or Doc): Document(s) to visualise.
diff --git a/spacy/util.py b/spacy/util.py
index 0fbe9f92d..ad40d4c87 100644
--- a/spacy/util.py
+++ b/spacy/util.py
@@ -142,6 +142,20 @@ def parse_package_meta(package_path, require=True):
         return None
 
 
+def is_in_jupyter():
+    """Check if user is in a Jupyter notebook. Mainly used for displaCy.
+
+    RETURNS (bool): True if in Jupyter, False if not.
+    """
+    try:
+        cfg = get_ipython().config
+        if cfg['IPKernelApp']['parent_appname'] == 'ipython-notebook':
+            return True
+    except NameError:
+        return False
+    return False
+
+
 def get_cuda_stream(require=False):
     # TODO: Error and tell to install chainer if not found
     # Requires GPU