diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a420c7c2b..47daf5d59 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -701,11 +701,15 @@ kill -HUP `pidof prometheus`
 If you have Prometheus HA pairs with replicas `r1` and `r2` in each pair, then configure each `r1`
 to write data to `victoriametrics-addr-1`, while each `r2` should write data to `victoriametrics-addr-2`.
 
+
 ### Retention
 
-Metrics is stored in directories per month. Retention occurs on the first day of the new month.
-In order to keep data according to `retentionPeriod` max disk usage is going to be `retentionPeriod` + 1 month.
-For example if you have `retentionPeriod` set to 1, january data will be deleted at March 1st.
+Retention is configured with `-retentionPeriod` command-line flag. For instance, `-retentionPeriod=3` means
+that the data will be stored for 3 months and then deleted.
+Data is split in per-month subdirectories inside `<-storageDataPath>/data/small` and `<-storageDataPath>/data/big` folders.
+Directories for months outside the configured retention are deleted on the first day of new month.
+In order to keep data according to `-retentionPeriod` max disk space usage is going to be `-retentionPeriod` + 1 month.
+For example if `-retentionPeriod` is set to 1, data for January is deleted on March 1st.
 
 
 ### Multiple retentions
diff --git a/docs/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics.md b/docs/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics.md
index a036bb312..b0616edc9 100644
--- a/docs/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics.md
+++ b/docs/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics.md
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ Cluster version is available [here](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaM
   - [Federation](#federation)
   - [Capacity planning](#capacity-planning)
   - [High availability](#high-availability)
+  - [Retention](#retention)
   - [Multiple retentions](#multiple-retentions)
   - [Downsampling](#downsampling)
   - [Multi-tenancy](#multi-tenancy)
@@ -691,6 +692,16 @@ If you have Prometheus HA pairs with replicas `r1` and `r2` in each pair, then c
 to write data to `victoriametrics-addr-1`, while each `r2` should write data to `victoriametrics-addr-2`.
 
 
+### Retention
+
+Retention is configured with `-retentionPeriod` command-line flag. For instance, `-retentionPeriod=3` means
+that the data will be stored for 3 months and then deleted.
+Data is split in per-month subdirectories inside `<-storageDataPath>/data/small` and `<-storageDataPath>/data/big` folders.
+Directories for months outside the configured retention are deleted on the first day of new month.
+In order to keep data according to `-retentionPeriod` max disk space usage is going to be `-retentionPeriod` + 1 month.
+For example if `-retentionPeriod` is set to 1, data for January is deleted on March 1st.
+
+
 ### Multiple retentions
 
 Just start multiple VictoriaMetrics instances with distinct values for the following flags: