diff --git a/changelog.d/172.feature.md b/changelog.d/172.feature.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db79b1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/172.feature.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Use `importlib.metadata` to include project version string as `fastapi_cache.__version__`.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/fastapi_cache/__init__.py b/fastapi_cache/__init__.py
index d9e96a4..e127a8e 100644
--- a/fastapi_cache/__init__.py
+++ b/fastapi_cache/__init__.py
@@ -1,10 +1,19 @@
 from typing import ClassVar, Optional, Type
 
+# Because this project supports python 3.7 and up, Pyright treats importlib as
+# an external library and so needs to be told to ignore the type issues it sees.
+try:
+    # Python 3.8+
+    from importlib.metadata import version  # type: ignore
+except ImportError:
+    # Python 3.7
+    from importlib_metadata import version  # type: ignore
+
 from fastapi_cache.coder import Coder, JsonCoder
 from fastapi_cache.key_builder import default_key_builder
 from fastapi_cache.types import Backend, KeyBuilder
 
-__version__ = "0.2.1"
+__version__ = version("fastapi-cache2")  # pyright: ignore[reportUnknownVariableType]
 __all__ = [
     "Backend",
     "Coder",
@@ -92,7 +101,11 @@ class FastAPICache:
         return cls._enable
 
     @classmethod
-    async def clear(cls, namespace: Optional[str] = None, key: Optional[str] = None) -> int:
-        assert cls._backend and cls._prefix is not None, "You must call init first!"  # noqa: S101
+    async def clear(
+        cls, namespace: Optional[str] = None, key: Optional[str] = None
+    ) -> int:
+        assert (  # noqa: S101
+            cls._backend and cls._prefix is not None
+        ), "You must call init first!"
         namespace = cls._prefix + (":" + namespace if namespace else "")
         return await cls._backend.clear(namespace, key)
diff --git a/poetry.lock b/poetry.lock
index 886dd06..451c5a0 100644
--- a/poetry.lock
+++ b/poetry.lock
@@ -2574,4 +2574,4 @@ redis = ["redis"]
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "2.0"
 python-versions = "^3.7"
-content-hash = "c16f63dc3f2e9a5c4c01faed05d4b50c48edf0221e6e371665b0b83598bc7aa9"
+content-hash = "d96f466d1d43a0c98a946d3a89da93233e8f3c83faa2df3c35c937388dedef39"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index ef2d8b1..46dd79b 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ aiomcache = { version = "*", optional = true }
 pendulum = "*"
 aiobotocore = { version = ">=1.4.1,<3.0.0", optional = true }
 typing-extensions = { version = ">=4.1.0" }
+importlib-metadata = {version = "^6.6.0", python = "<3.8"}
 
 [tool.poetry.group.linting]
 optional = true