diff --git a/src/traces/histogram/attributes.js b/src/traces/histogram/attributes.js
index a87fcd96ae2..5c687871080 100644
--- a/src/traces/histogram/attributes.js
+++ b/src/traces/histogram/attributes.js
@@ -82,7 +82,9 @@ module.exports = {
         role: 'style',
         description: [
             'Determines whether or not the x axis bin attributes are picked',
-            'by an algorithm.'
+            'by an algorithm. Note that this should be set to false if you',
+            'want to manually set the number of bins using the attributes in',
+            'xbins.'
         ].join(' ')
     },
     nbinsx: {
@@ -90,7 +92,11 @@ module.exports = {
         min: 0,
         dflt: 0,
         role: 'style',
-        description: 'Sets the number of x axis bins.'
+        description: [
+            'Specifies the maximum number of desired bins. This value will be used',
+            'in an algorithm that will decide the optimal bin size such that the',
+            'histogram best visualizes the distribution of the data.'
+        ].join(' ')
     },
     xbins: makeBinsAttr('x'),
 
@@ -100,7 +106,9 @@ module.exports = {
         role: 'style',
         description: [
             'Determines whether or not the y axis bin attributes are picked',
-            'by an algorithm.'
+            'by an algorithm. Note that this should be set to false if you',
+            'want to manually set the number of bins using the attributes in',
+            'ybins.'
         ].join(' ')
     },
     nbinsy: {
@@ -108,7 +116,11 @@ module.exports = {
         min: 0,
         dflt: 0,
         role: 'style',
-        description: 'Sets the number of y axis bins.'
+        description: [
+            'Specifies the maximum number of desired bins. This value will be used',
+            'in an algorithm that will decide the optimal bin size such that the',
+            'histogram best visualizes the distribution of the data.'
+        ].join(' ')
     },
     ybins: makeBinsAttr('y'),