diff --git a/freqtrade/plot/plot_utils.py b/freqtrade/plot/plot_utils.py
index 507e86d9d..d7d8919d5 100644
--- a/freqtrade/plot/plot_utils.py
+++ b/freqtrade/plot/plot_utils.py
@@ -1,15 +1,24 @@
 from argparse import Namespace
-
+from freqtrade import OperationalException
 from freqtrade.state import RunMode
 from freqtrade.utils import setup_utils_configuration
 
 
+def validate_plot_args(args: Namespace):
+    args_tmp = vars(args)
+    if not args_tmp.get('datadir') and not args_tmp.get('config'):
+        raise OperationalException(
+            "You need to specify either `--datadir` or `--config` "
+            "for plot-profit and plot-dataframe.")
+
+
 def start_plot_dataframe(args: Namespace) -> None:
     """
     Entrypoint for dataframe plotting
     """
     # Import here to avoid errors if plot-dependencies are not installed.
     from freqtrade.plot.plotting import analyse_and_plot_pairs
+    validate_plot_args(args)
     config = setup_utils_configuration(args, RunMode.PLOT)
 
     analyse_and_plot_pairs(config)
@@ -21,6 +30,7 @@ def start_plot_profit(args: Namespace) -> None:
     """
     # Import here to avoid errors if plot-dependencies are not installed.
     from freqtrade.plot.plotting import plot_profit
+    validate_plot_args(args)
     config = setup_utils_configuration(args, RunMode.PLOT)
 
     plot_profit(config)
diff --git a/freqtrade/tests/test_plotting.py b/freqtrade/tests/test_plotting.py
index df208d4d2..f1785b63f 100644
--- a/freqtrade/tests/test_plotting.py
+++ b/freqtrade/tests/test_plotting.py
@@ -4,8 +4,10 @@ from pathlib import Path
 from unittest.mock import MagicMock
 
 import plotly.graph_objects as go
+import pytest
 from plotly.subplots import make_subplots
 
+from freqtrade import OperationalException
 from freqtrade.configuration import TimeRange
 from freqtrade.data import history
 from freqtrade.data.btanalysis import create_cum_profit, load_backtest_data
@@ -335,6 +337,15 @@ def test_start_plot_profit(mocker):
     assert called_config['pairs'] == ["ETH/BTC"]
 
 
+def test_start_plot_profit_error(mocker):
+    args = [
+        "plot-profit",
+        "--pairs", "ETH/BTC"
+    ]
+    with pytest.raises(OperationalException):
+        start_plot_profit(get_args(args))
+
+
 def test_plot_profit(default_conf, mocker, caplog):
     default_conf['trade_source'] = 'file'
     default_conf["datadir"] = history.make_testdata_path(None)