diff --git a/src/lightning/fabric/cli.py b/src/lightning/fabric/cli.py
index 5f18884e83d79..3f93472b044f6 100644
--- a/src/lightning/fabric/cli.py
+++ b/src/lightning/fabric/cli.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
 _CLICK_AVAILABLE = RequirementCache("click")
 _LIGHTNING_SDK_AVAILABLE = RequirementCache("lightning_sdk")
 
-_SUPPORTED_ACCELERATORS = ("cpu", "gpu", "cuda", "mps", "tpu")
+_SUPPORTED_ACCELERATORS = ("cpu", "gpu", "cuda", "mps", "tpu", "auto")
 
 
 def _get_supported_strategies() -> list[str]:
@@ -208,6 +208,14 @@ def _set_env_variables(args: Namespace) -> None:
 
 def _get_num_processes(accelerator: str, devices: str) -> int:
     """Parse the `devices` argument to determine how many processes need to be launched on the current machine."""
+    if accelerator == "auto":
+        if torch.cuda.is_available():
+            accelerator = "cuda"
+        elif getattr(torch.backends, "mps", None) and torch.backends.mps.is_available():
+            accelerator = "mps"
+        else:
+            accelerator = "cpu"
+
     if accelerator == "gpu":
         parsed_devices = _parse_gpu_ids(devices, include_cuda=True, include_mps=True)
     elif accelerator == "cuda":