diff --git a/ani-cli b/ani-cli
index 1ef06a793..dbffbea00 100755
--- a/ani-cli
+++ b/ani-cli
@@ -119,6 +119,58 @@ update_script() {
     exit 0
 }
 
+# compare two versions: returns 1 if v1>v2, 0 if equal, -1 if v1<v2
+#compare at each level
+ver_compare() {
+    v1=$1
+    v2=$2
+    while [ -n "$v1" ] || [ -n "$v2" ]; do
+        case "$v1" in
+            *.*) seg1=${v1%%.*}; v1=${v1#*.} ;;
+            "") seg1=0 ;;
+            *) seg1=$v1; v1=;;
+        esac
+        case "$v2" in
+            *.*) seg2=${v2%%.*}; v2=${v2#*.} ;;
+            "") seg2=0 ;;
+            *) seg2=$v2; v2=;;
+        esac
+        # treat non-numeric segments as 0 (like the original awk ai+0 behavior)
+        case "$seg1" in
+            ''|*[!0-9]*) seg1=0 ;;
+        esac
+        case "$seg2" in
+            ''|*[!0-9]*) seg2=0 ;;
+        esac
+        # strip leading zeros to avoid octal interpretation
+        while [ "${seg1#0}" != "$seg1" ]; do seg1=${seg1#0}; done
+        [ -z "$seg1" ] && seg1=0
+        while [ "${seg2#0}" != "$seg2" ]; do seg2=${seg2#0}; done
+        [ -z "$seg2" ] && seg2=0
+        if [ "$seg1" -lt "$seg2" ]; then
+            printf "%s\n" -1
+            return
+        fi
+        if [ "$seg1" -gt "$seg2" ]; then
+            printf "%s\n" 1
+            return
+        fi
+    done
+    printf "%s\n" 0
+}
+#check for newer version on GitHub; we can disable it by setting ANI_CLI_DISABLE_UPDATE_CHECK=1
+check_remote_version() {
+    [ "${ANI_CLI_DISABLE_UPDATE_CHECK:-0}" = "1" ] && return 0
+    rem=$(curl -fs -A "$agent" "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pystardust/ani-cli/master/ani-cli" 2>/dev/null) || return 0
+    [ -z "$rem" ] && return 0
+    remote_ver=$(printf '%s\n' "$rem" | sed -nE 's/^version_number="([^"]*)"/\1/p' | head -n1)
+    [ -z "$remote_ver" ] && return 0
+    cmp=$(ver_compare "$remote_ver" "$version_number")
+    if [ "$cmp" -eq 1 ]; then
+        printf "\33[2K\r\033[1;33mNew version available: %s (installed: %s). Run %s to update.\033[0m\n" "$remote_ver" "$version_number" "${0##*/} -U" >&2
+    fi
+}
+
 # checks if dependencies are present
 dep_ch() {
     for dep; do
@@ -565,6 +617,7 @@ done
 [ "$use_external_menu" = "1" ] && multi_selection_flag="${ANI_CLI_MULTI_SELECTION:-"-multi-select"}"
 [ "$external_menu_normal_window" = "1" ] && external_menu_args="-normal-window"
 printf "\33[2K\r\033[1;34mChecking dependencies...\033[0m\n"
+check_remote_version &
 dep_ch "curl" "sed" "grep" || true
 case "$(uname -o 2>/dev/null)" in
     *ndroid*) command -v openssl >/dev/null || die 'Program "openssl" not found. On Termux, install with: pkg install openssl-tool' ;;