diff --git a/plugins/providers/virtualbox/config.rb b/plugins/providers/virtualbox/config.rb
index 0aa9bde1d..ba60e77e9 100644
--- a/plugins/providers/virtualbox/config.rb
+++ b/plugins/providers/virtualbox/config.rb
@@ -84,6 +84,14 @@ module VagrantPlugins
         customize("pre-boot", ["modifyvm", :id, "--memory", size.to_s])
       end
 
+      # Shortcut for setting CPU count for the virtual machine.
+      # Calls #customize internally.
+      #
+      # @param count [Integer, String] the count of CPUs
+      def cpus=(count)
+        customize("pre-boot", ["modifyvm", :id, "--cpus", count.to_i])
+      end
+
       # This is the hook that is called to finalize the object before it
       # is put into use.
       def finalize!
diff --git a/website/docs/source/v2/virtualbox/configuration.html.md b/website/docs/source/v2/virtualbox/configuration.html.md
index 165368bb2..22cb2a6c5 100644
--- a/website/docs/source/v2/virtualbox/configuration.html.md
+++ b/website/docs/source/v2/virtualbox/configuration.html.md
@@ -62,11 +62,11 @@ more than 50% would be used on your own host machine. Some details:
 * Multiple `customize` directives can be used. They will be executed in the
   order given.
 
-There is also a shortcut for specifying the memory size (MB) for the virtual
-machine:
+There are some convenience shortcuts for memory and CPU settings:
 
 ```ruby
 config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
   v.memory = 1024
+  v.cpus = 2
 end
 ```