diff --git a/app/vmstorage/transport/server.go b/app/vmstorage/transport/server.go
index 458b079aab..71ac623d4d 100644
--- a/app/vmstorage/transport/server.go
+++ b/app/vmstorage/transport/server.go
@@ -1193,7 +1193,9 @@ func (s *Server) processVMSelectSearch(ctx *vmselectRequestCtx) error {
 	if err := checkTimeRange(s.storage, tr); err != nil {
 		return ctx.writeErrorMessage(err)
 	}
+	startTime := time.Now()
 	ctx.sr.Init(s.storage, ctx.tfss, tr, *maxMetricsPerSearch, ctx.deadline)
+	indexSearchDuration.UpdateDuration(startTime)
 	defer ctx.sr.MustClose()
 	if err := ctx.sr.Error(); err != nil {
 		return ctx.writeErrorMessage(err)
@@ -1228,6 +1230,8 @@ func (s *Server) processVMSelectSearch(ctx *vmselectRequestCtx) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+var indexSearchDuration = metrics.NewHistogram(`vm_index_search_duration_seconds`)
+
 // checkTimeRange returns true if the given tr is denied for querying.
 func checkTimeRange(s *storage.Storage, tr storage.TimeRange) error {
 	if !*denyQueriesOutsideRetention {
diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index 937a4fa2db..b2149650d1 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
   - `histogram_stddev(buckets)` - returns standard deviation for the given buckets.
 * FEATURE: reduce median query duration by up to 2x. See https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/commit/18fe0ff14bc78860c5569e2b70de1db78fac61be
 * FEATURE: export `vm_available_memory_bytes` and `vm_available_cpu_cores` metrics, which show the number of available RAM and available CPU cores for VictoriaMetrics apps.
+* FEATURE: export `vm_index_search_duration_seconds` histogram, which can be used for troubleshooting time series search performance.
 * FEATURE: vmagent: add ability to replicate scrape targets among `vmagent` instances in the cluster with `-promscrape.cluster.replicationFactor` command-line flag. See [these docs](https://victoriametrics.github.io/vmagent.html#scraping-big-number-of-targets).
 * FEATURE: vmagent: accept `scrape_offset` option at `scrape_config`. This option may be useful when scrapes must start at the specified offset of every scrape interval. See [these docs](https://victoriametrics.github.io/vmagent.html#troubleshooting) for details.
 * FEATURE: vmagent: support `proxy_tls_config`, `proxy_basic_auth`, `proxy_bearer_token` and `proxy_bearer_token_file` options at `scrape_config` section for configuring proxies specified via `proxy_url`. See [these docs](https://victoriametrics.github.io/vmagent.html#scraping-targets-via-a-proxy).