diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8511848..5c918fb 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,12 +18,14 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Changed
 - query/cursor: improve performance of `RowCursor::next()` ([#169]).
+- query: exposed method to control the `readonly` query parameter ([#181]).
 
 ### Fixed
 - mock: work with the advanced time via `tokio::time::advance()` ([#165]).
 
 [#165]: https://github.com/ClickHouse/clickhouse-rs/pull/165
 [#169]: https://github.com/ClickHouse/clickhouse-rs/pull/169
+[#181]: https://github.com/ClickHouse/clickhouse-rs/pull/181
 
 ## [0.13.0] - 2024-09-27
 ### Added
diff --git a/src/query.rs b/src/query.rs
index eba1915..44ee23f 100644
--- a/src/query.rs
+++ b/src/query.rs
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ pub use crate::cursor::RowCursor;
 pub struct Query {
     client: Client,
     sql: SqlBuilder,
+    is_read_only: bool,
 }
 
 impl Query {
@@ -29,6 +30,7 @@ impl Query {
         Self {
             client: client.clone(),
             sql: SqlBuilder::new(template),
+            is_read_only: true,
         }
     }
 
@@ -58,7 +60,7 @@ impl Query {
 
     /// Executes the query.
     pub async fn execute(self) -> Result<()> {
-        self.do_execute(false)?.finish().await
+        self.do_execute()?.finish().await
     }
 
     /// Executes the query, returning a [`RowCursor`] to obtain results.
@@ -86,7 +88,7 @@ impl Query {
         self.sql.bind_fields::<T>();
         self.sql.append(" FORMAT RowBinary");
 
-        let response = self.do_execute(true)?;
+        let response = self.do_execute()?;
         Ok(RowCursor::new(response))
     }
 
@@ -132,7 +134,14 @@ impl Query {
         Ok(result)
     }
 
-    pub(crate) fn do_execute(self, read_only: bool) -> Result<Response> {
+    /// Sets the read only option.
+    pub fn read_only(mut self, is_read_only: bool) -> Self {
+        self.is_read_only = is_read_only;
+
+        self
+    }
+
+    pub(crate) fn do_execute(self) -> Result<Response> {
         let query = self.sql.finish()?;
 
         let mut url =
@@ -144,10 +153,10 @@ impl Query {
             pairs.append_pair("database", database);
         }
 
-        let use_post = !read_only || query.len() > MAX_QUERY_LEN_TO_USE_GET;
+        let use_post = !self.is_read_only || query.len() > MAX_QUERY_LEN_TO_USE_GET;
 
         let (method, body, content_length) = if use_post {
-            if read_only {
+            if self.is_read_only {
                 pairs.append_pair("readonly", "1");
             }
             let len = query.len();
diff --git a/src/watch.rs b/src/watch.rs
index 1914399..7ee180f 100644
--- a/src/watch.rs
+++ b/src/watch.rs
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ async fn init_cursor<T>(client: &Client, params: &WatchParams) -> Result<JsonCur
 
     watch_sql.push_str(" FORMAT JSONEachRowWithProgress");
 
-    let response = client.query(&watch_sql).do_execute(true)?;
+    let response = client.query(&watch_sql).do_execute()?;
     Ok(JsonCursor::new(response))
 }