diff --git a/Lib/argparse.py b/Lib/argparse.py
--- a/Lib/argparse.py
+++ b/Lib/argparse.py
@@ -1037,7 +1037,8 @@
             version = parser.version
         formatter = parser._get_formatter()
         formatter.add_text(version)
-        parser.exit(message=formatter.format_help())
+        parser._print_message(formatter.format_help(), _sys.stdout)
+        parser.exit()
 
 
 class _SubParsersAction(Action):
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_argparse.py b/Lib/test/test_argparse.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_argparse.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_argparse.py
@@ -4359,7 +4359,7 @@
     def test_version_format(self):
         parser = ErrorRaisingArgumentParser(prog='PPP')
         parser.add_argument('-v', '--version', action='version', version='%(prog)s 3.5')
-        msg = self._get_error(parser.parse_args, ['-v']).stderr
+        msg = self._get_error(parser.parse_args, ['-v']).stdout
         self.assertEqual('PPP 3.5\n', msg)
 
     def test_version_no_help(self):
@@ -4372,7 +4372,7 @@
     def test_version_action(self):
         parser = ErrorRaisingArgumentParser(prog='XXX')
         parser.add_argument('-V', action='version', version='%(prog)s 3.7')
-        msg = self._get_error(parser.parse_args, ['-V']).stderr
+        msg = self._get_error(parser.parse_args, ['-V']).stdout
         self.assertEqual('XXX 3.7\n', msg)
 
     def test_no_help(self):
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -242,6 +242,9 @@
 - Issue #18338: `python --version` now prints version string to stdout, and
   not to stderr.  Patch by Berker Peksag and Michael Dickens.
 
+- Issue #18920: argparse's default destination for the version action (-v,
+  --version) has also been changed to stdout, to match the Python executable.
+
 - Issue #18426: Fix NULL pointer dereference in C extension import when
   PyModule_GetDef() returns an error.