diff --git a/doc/help/commands.asciidoc b/doc/help/commands.asciidoc
index 9c9c5b468..fe1b1a67b 100644
--- a/doc/help/commands.asciidoc
+++ b/doc/help/commands.asciidoc
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 |<<fullscreen,fullscreen>>|Toggle fullscreen mode.
 |<<help,help>>|Show help about a command or setting.
 |<<hint,hint>>|Start hinting.
-|<<history-clear,history-clear>>|Clear all history entries.
+|<<history-clear,history-clear>>|Clear all browsing history.
 |<<home,home>>|Open main startpage in current tab.
 |<<inspector,inspector>>|Toggle the web inspector.
 |<<jseval,jseval>>|Evaluate a JavaScript string.
@@ -359,7 +359,9 @@ Start hinting.
 
 [[history-clear]]
 === history-clear
-Clear all history entries.
+Clear all browsing history.
+
+Note this only clears the global history (e.g. `~/.local/share/qutebrowser/history` on Linux) but not cookies, the back/forward history of a tab, cache or other persistent data.
 
 [[home]]
 === home
diff --git a/qutebrowser/browser/history.py b/qutebrowser/browser/history.py
index 7c8a3cd00..c09b2f168 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/browser/history.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/browser/history.py
@@ -179,7 +179,12 @@ class WebHistory(QWebHistoryInterface):
 
     @cmdutils.register(name='history-clear', instance='web-history')
     def clear(self):
-        """Clear all history entries."""
+        """Clear all browsing history.
+
+        Note this only clears the global history
+        (e.g. `~/.local/share/qutebrowser/history` on Linux) but not cookies,
+        the back/forward history of a tab, cache or other persistent data.
+        """
         self._lineparser.clear()
         self._history_dict.clear()
         self._temp_history.clear()