diff --git a/private_gpt/utils/runner.py b/private_gpt/utils/runner.py
index 0d2a1820..50c45559 100644
--- a/private_gpt/utils/runner.py
+++ b/private_gpt/utils/runner.py
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from importlib.metadata import PackageNotFoundError, version
+from pathlib import Path
+
+
 def get_version() -> str:
-    with open("version.txt", "r+") as version_file:
+    try:
+        return version("private-gpt")
+    except PackageNotFoundError:
+        version_file = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[2] / "version.txt"
         try:
-            release_version = version_file.read()
-            version_file.close()
-            return release_version
-        except OSError as e:
-            raise ImportError("Version file not found") from e
+            return version_file.read_text(encoding="utf-8").strip()
+        except OSError as exc:
+            raise ImportError("Version metadata not found") from exc
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b5f95cae..22bce5a4 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -348,6 +348,7 @@ packages = ["private_gpt"]
 
 [tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel.force-include]
 "settings.yaml" = "settings.yaml"
+"version.txt" = "version.txt"
 "ui" = "ui"
 "scripts" = "scripts"