diff --git a/doc/help/settings.asciidoc b/doc/help/settings.asciidoc
index 8b1803fb2..d738a68ca 100644
--- a/doc/help/settings.asciidoc
+++ b/doc/help/settings.asciidoc
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@
 |<<network-ssl-strict,ssl-strict>>|Whether to validate SSL handshakes.
 |<<network-dns-prefetch,dns-prefetch>>|Whether to try to pre-fetch DNS entries to speed up browsing.
 |<<network-custom-headers,custom-headers>>|Set custom headers for qutebrowser HTTP requests.
-|<<network-netrc-file,netrc-file>>|Set location of netrc-file for HTTP authentication.
+|<<network-netrc-file,netrc-file>>|Set location of a netrc-file for HTTP authentication. If empty, ~/.netrc is used.
 |==============
 
 .Quick reference for section ``completion''
@@ -811,7 +811,7 @@ Default: empty
 
 [[network-netrc-file]]
 === netrc-file
-Set location of netrc-file for HTTP authentication.
+Set location of a netrc-file for HTTP authentication. If empty, ~/.netrc is used.
 
 Default: empty
 
diff --git a/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py b/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py
index e503c3e45..ea3939a44 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py
@@ -440,7 +440,8 @@ def data(readonly=False):
 
             ('netrc-file',
              SettingValue(typ.File(none_ok=True), ''),
-             "Set location of netrc-file for HTTP authentication."),
+             "Set location of a netrc-file for HTTP authentication. If empty, "
+             "~/.netrc is used."),
 
             readonly=readonly
         )),