diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 604d98d8c..92547201b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+## master / unreleased
+
+* [ENHANCEMENT] TSDB: WAL compression is enabled by default.
+
 ## 2.19.0 / 2020-06-09
 
 * [FEATURE] TSDB: Memory-map full chunks of Head (in-memory) block from disk. This reduces memory footprint and makes restarts faster. #6679
diff --git a/cmd/prometheus/main.go b/cmd/prometheus/main.go
index d3386c3b5..c6066b72f 100644
--- a/cmd/prometheus/main.go
+++ b/cmd/prometheus/main.go
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ func main() {
 		Default("false").BoolVar(&cfg.tsdb.AllowOverlappingBlocks)
 
 	a.Flag("storage.tsdb.wal-compression", "Compress the tsdb WAL.").
-		Default("false").BoolVar(&cfg.tsdb.WALCompression)
+		Default("true").BoolVar(&cfg.tsdb.WALCompression)
 
 	a.Flag("storage.remote.flush-deadline", "How long to wait flushing sample on shutdown or config reload.").
 		Default("1m").PlaceHolder("<duration>").SetValue(&cfg.RemoteFlushDeadline)
diff --git a/docs/storage.md b/docs/storage.md
index 808547101..f599dc849 100644
--- a/docs/storage.md
+++ b/docs/storage.md
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ Prometheus has several flags that allow configuring the local storage. The most
 * `--storage.tsdb.retention.time`: This determines when to remove old data. Defaults to `15d`. Overrides `storage.tsdb.retention` if this flag is set to anything other than default.
 * `--storage.tsdb.retention.size`: [EXPERIMENTAL] This determines the maximum number of bytes that storage blocks can use (note that this does not include the WAL size, which can be substantial). The oldest data will be removed first. Defaults to `0` or disabled. This flag is experimental and can be changed in future releases. Units supported: B, KB, MB, GB, TB, PB, EB. Ex: "512MB"
 * `--storage.tsdb.retention`: This flag has been deprecated in favour of `storage.tsdb.retention.time`.
-* `--storage.tsdb.wal-compression`: This flag enables compression of the write-ahead log (WAL). Depending on your data, you can expect the WAL size to be halved with little extra cpu load. Note that if you enable this flag and subsequently downgrade Prometheus to a version below 2.11.0 you will need to delete your WAL as it will be unreadable.
+* `--storage.tsdb.wal-compression`: This flag enables compression of the write-ahead log (WAL). Depending on your data, you can expect the WAL size to be halved with little extra cpu load. This flag was introduced in 2.11.0 and enabled by default in 2.20.0. Note that once enabled, downgrading Prometheus to a version below 2.11.0 will require deleting the WAL.
 
 On average, Prometheus uses only around 1-2 bytes per sample. Thus, to plan the capacity of a Prometheus server, you can use the rough formula: