diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/etcd3/metrics/metrics.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/etcd3/metrics/metrics.go
index 0192d754e26..fadc87d53de 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/etcd3/metrics/metrics.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/etcd3/metrics/metrics.go
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ var (
 	objectCounts = compbasemetrics.NewGaugeVec(
 		&compbasemetrics.GaugeOpts{
 			Name:           "apiserver_storage_objects",
-			Help:           "Number of stored objects at the time of last check split by kind.",
+			Help:           "Number of stored objects at the time of last check split by kind. In case of a fetching error, the value will be -1.",
 			StabilityLevel: compbasemetrics.STABLE,
 		},
 		[]string{"resource"},
diff --git a/test/instrumentation/testdata/stable-metrics-list.yaml b/test/instrumentation/testdata/stable-metrics-list.yaml
index e8f544f1ac1..0f20ca5e0da 100644
--- a/test/instrumentation/testdata/stable-metrics-list.yaml
+++ b/test/instrumentation/testdata/stable-metrics-list.yaml
@@ -320,7 +320,8 @@
   - 1e+08
   - 1e+09
 - name: apiserver_storage_objects
-  help: Number of stored objects at the time of last check split by kind.
+  help: Number of stored objects at the time of last check split by kind. In case
+    of a fetching error, the value will be -1.
   type: Gauge
   stabilityLevel: STABLE
   labels: