diff --git a/pandas/core/shared_docs.py b/pandas/core/shared_docs.py
index 7579f816d0ace..ba793b9c11c27 100644
--- a/pandas/core/shared_docs.py
+++ b/pandas/core/shared_docs.py
@@ -113,6 +113,12 @@
 axis : {0 or 'index', 1 or 'columns'}, default 0
     Split along rows (0) or columns (1). For `Series` this parameter
     is unused and defaults to 0.
+
+    .. deprecated:: 2.1.0
+
+        Will be removed and behave like axis=0 in a future version.
+        For ``axis=1``, do ``frame.T.groupby(...)`` instead.
+
 level : int, level name, or sequence of such, default None
     If the axis is a MultiIndex (hierarchical), group by a particular
     level or levels. Do not specify both ``by`` and ``level``.