diff --git a/api/src/main/java/io/grpc/Status.java b/api/src/main/java/io/grpc/Status.java
index b63f0cbf2d..aac44caef6 100644
--- a/api/src/main/java/io/grpc/Status.java
+++ b/api/src/main/java/io/grpc/Status.java
@@ -182,7 +182,8 @@ public final class Status {
     /**
      * The service is currently unavailable.  This is a most likely a
      * transient condition and may be corrected by retrying with
-     * a backoff.
+     * a backoff. Note that it is not always safe to retry
+     * non-idempotent operations.
      *
      * <p>See litmus test above for deciding between FAILED_PRECONDITION,
      * ABORTED, and UNAVAILABLE.