diff --git a/sdks/java/io/kafka/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/kafka/KafkaIO.java b/sdks/java/io/kafka/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/kafka/KafkaIO.java
index 90d93076a89a..d7f882c25f7c 100644
--- a/sdks/java/io/kafka/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/kafka/KafkaIO.java
+++ b/sdks/java/io/kafka/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/kafka/KafkaIO.java
@@ -1357,6 +1357,8 @@ public Read<K, V> withBadRecordErrorHandler(ErrorHandler<BadRecord, ?> badRecord
 
     /**
      * Sets the timeout time for Kafka consumer polling request in the {@link ReadFromKafkaDoFn}.
+     * A lower timeout optimizes for latency.
+     * Increase the timeout if the consumer is not fetching enough (or any) records. 
      * The default is 2 seconds.
      */
     public Read<K, V> withConsumerPollingTimeout(Duration duration) {