diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 7c2bbe46bf9..9595755e120 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -334,6 +334,7 @@ Release 0.91.0 - Unreleased
                (Alejandro Abdelnur)
    HBASE-3899  enhance HBase RPC to support free-ing up server handler threads
                even if response is not ready (Vlad Dogaru)
+   HBASE-4142  Advise against large batches in javadoc for HTable#put(List<Put>)
 
   TASKS
    HBASE-3559  Move report of split to master OFF the heartbeat channel
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HTableInterface.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HTableInterface.java
index c16e75e1375..f84ff76c8c3 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HTableInterface.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HTableInterface.java
@@ -188,6 +188,10 @@ public interface HTableInterface {
    * <p>
    * If {@link #isAutoFlush isAutoFlush} is false, the update is buffered
    * until the internal buffer is full.
+   * <p>
+   * This can be used for group commit, or for submitting user defined
+   * batches, but sending large lists of values is not recommended. That may
+   * produce performance problems.
    * @param puts The list of mutations to apply. The batch put is done by
    * aggregating the iteration of the Puts over the write buffer
    * at the client-side for a single RPC call.