diff --git a/civicrm.php b/civicrm.php
index fc1b23a1ba5c2f8c3887552cf0b5d75217e89d16..0825f65e3937d9536447d7d4734ee6d3af5f7b91 100644
--- a/civicrm.php
+++ b/civicrm.php
@@ -367,7 +367,7 @@ class CiviCRM_For_WordPress {
      * There is no session handling in WP - hence we start it for CiviCRM pages
      * except when running via WP-CLI which does not require sessions.
      */
-    if ( empty( $session_id ) && ! ( defined( 'WP_CLI' ) && WP_CLI ) ) {
+    if ( empty( $session_id ) && ! ( defined( 'WP_CLI' ) && WP_CLI ) && ( PHP_SAPI !== 'cli' ) ) {
       session_start();
     }