diff --git a/app/vmstorage/main.go b/app/vmstorage/main.go
index f1a5d0add4..878e10a395 100644
--- a/app/vmstorage/main.go
+++ b/app/vmstorage/main.go
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ var (
 	vmselectAddr    = flag.String("vmselectAddr", ":8401", "TCP address to accept connections from vmselect services")
 	snapshotAuthKey = flag.String("snapshotAuthKey", "", "authKey, which must be passed in query string to /snapshot* pages")
 
+	disableRecentHourIndex = flag.Bool("disableRecentHourIndex", false, "Whether to disable inmemory inverted index for recent hour. "+
+		"This may be useful in order to reduce memory usage when working with high number of time series")
 	bigMergeConcurrency   = flag.Int("bigMergeConcurrency", 0, "The maximum number of CPU cores to use for big merges. Default value is used if set to 0")
 	smallMergeConcurrency = flag.Int("smallMergeConcurrency", 0, "The maximum number of CPU cores to use for small merges. Default value is used if set to 0")
 )
@@ -35,6 +37,9 @@ func main() {
 	buildinfo.Init()
 	logger.Init()
 
+	if *disableRecentHourIndex {
+		storage.DisableRecentHourIndex()
+	}
 	storage.SetBigMergeWorkersCount(*bigMergeConcurrency)
 	storage.SetSmallMergeWorkersCount(*smallMergeConcurrency)
 
diff --git a/lib/storage/index_db.go b/lib/storage/index_db.go
index 9b116536d9..ac3bb9d803 100644
--- a/lib/storage/index_db.go
+++ b/lib/storage/index_db.go
@@ -2231,6 +2231,10 @@ func (is *indexSearch) getMetricIDsForRecentHours(tr TimeRange, maxMetrics int,
 }
 
 func (is *indexSearch) tryUpdatingMetricIDsForRecentHour(metricIDs *uint64set.Set, tfs *TagFilters, tr TimeRange) bool {
+	if disableRecentHourIndex {
+		return false
+	}
+
 	atomic.AddUint64(&is.db.recentHourInvertedIndexSearchCalls, 1)
 	k := accountProjectKey{
 		AccountID: tfs.accountID,
diff --git a/lib/storage/storage.go b/lib/storage/storage.go
index b7aa806c54..856fff88e3 100644
--- a/lib/storage/storage.go
+++ b/lib/storage/storage.go
@@ -27,6 +27,17 @@ import (
 
 const maxRetentionMonths = 12 * 100
 
+var disableRecentHourIndex = false
+
+// DisableRecentHourIndex disables in-memory inverted index for recent hour.
+//
+// This may be useful in order to save RAM for high cardinality data.
+//
+// This function must be called before OpenStorage.
+func DisableRecentHourIndex() {
+	disableRecentHourIndex = true
+}
+
 // Storage represents TSDB storage.
 type Storage struct {
 	// Atomic counters must go at the top of the structure in order to properly align by 8 bytes on 32-bit archs.
@@ -593,19 +604,21 @@ func (s *Storage) mustLoadHourMetricIDs(hour uint64, name string) *hourMetricIDs
 
 	// Unmarshal hm.iidx
 	iidx := newInmemoryInvertedIndex()
-	tail, err := iidx.Unmarshal(src)
-	if err != nil {
-		logger.Errorf("discarding %s, since it has broken hm.iidx data: %s", path, err)
-		return &hourMetricIDs{
-			iidx: newInmemoryInvertedIndex(),
-			hour: hour,
+	if !disableRecentHourIndex {
+		tail, err := iidx.Unmarshal(src)
+		if err != nil {
+			logger.Errorf("discarding %s, since it has broken hm.iidx data: %s", path, err)
+			return &hourMetricIDs{
+				iidx: newInmemoryInvertedIndex(),
+				hour: hour,
+			}
 		}
-	}
-	if len(tail) > 0 {
-		logger.Errorf("discarding %s, since it contains superflouos %d bytes of data", path, len(tail))
-		return &hourMetricIDs{
-			iidx: newInmemoryInvertedIndex(),
-			hour: hour,
+		if len(tail) > 0 {
+			logger.Errorf("discarding %s, since it contains superflouos %d bytes of data", path, len(tail))
+			return &hourMetricIDs{
+				iidx: newInmemoryInvertedIndex(),
+				hour: hour,
+			}
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -652,8 +665,10 @@ func (s *Storage) mustSaveHourMetricIDs(hm *hourMetricIDs, name string) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	// Marshal hm.iidx
-	dst = hm.iidx.Marshal(dst)
+	if !disableRecentHourIndex {
+		// Marshal hm.iidx
+		dst = hm.iidx.Marshal(dst)
+	}
 
 	if err := ioutil.WriteFile(path, dst, 0644); err != nil {
 		logger.Panicf("FATAL: cannot write %d bytes to %q: %s", len(dst), path, err)
@@ -1015,7 +1030,9 @@ func (s *Storage) updatePerDateData(rows []rawRow, lastError error) error {
 			}
 			s.pendingHourEntries = append(s.pendingHourEntries, e)
 			s.pendingHourEntriesLock.Unlock()
-			hm.iidx.AddMetricID(idb, e)
+			if !disableRecentHourIndex {
+				hm.iidx.AddMetricID(idb, e)
+			}
 		}
 
 		// Slower path: check global cache for (date, metricID) entry.