diff --git a/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/ConsumerRecord.java b/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/ConsumerRecord.java
index 2ae93e82200..5b034fe27e7 100644
--- a/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/ConsumerRecord.java
+++ b/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/ConsumerRecord.java
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ public class ConsumerRecord<K, V> {
     }
 
     /**
-     * The timestamp of this record
+     * The timestamp of this record, in milliseconds elapsed since unix epoch.
      */
     public long timestamp() {
         return timestamp;