diff --git a/mvcc/kvstore_compaction.go b/mvcc/kvstore_compaction.go
index 10035e897a8..d0cff982892 100644
--- a/mvcc/kvstore_compaction.go
+++ b/mvcc/kvstore_compaction.go
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ func (s *store) scheduleCompaction(compactMainRev int64, keep map[revision]struc
 	defer func() { dbCompactionTotalMs.Observe(float64(time.Since(totalStart) / time.Millisecond)) }()
 	keyCompactions := 0
 	defer func() { dbCompactionKeysCounter.Add(float64(keyCompactions)) }()
+	defer func() { dbCompactionLast.Set(float64(time.Now().Unix())) }()
 
 	end := make([]byte, 8)
 	binary.BigEndian.PutUint64(end, uint64(compactMainRev+1))
diff --git a/mvcc/metrics.go b/mvcc/metrics.go
index 42932c40d34..580e66fd896 100644
--- a/mvcc/metrics.go
+++ b/mvcc/metrics.go
@@ -167,6 +167,14 @@ var (
 			Buckets: prometheus.ExponentialBuckets(100, 2, 14),
 		})
 
+	dbCompactionLast = prometheus.NewGauge(
+		prometheus.GaugeOpts{
+			Namespace: "etcd_debugging",
+			Subsystem: "mvcc",
+			Name:      "db_compaction_last",
+			Help:      "The unix time of the last db compaction. Resets to 0 on start.",
+		})
+
 	dbCompactionKeysCounter = prometheus.NewCounter(
 		prometheus.CounterOpts{
 			Namespace: "etcd_debugging",
@@ -324,6 +332,7 @@ func init() {
 	prometheus.MustRegister(indexCompactionPauseMs)
 	prometheus.MustRegister(dbCompactionPauseMs)
 	prometheus.MustRegister(dbCompactionTotalMs)
+	prometheus.MustRegister(dbCompactionLast)
 	prometheus.MustRegister(dbCompactionKeysCounter)
 	prometheus.MustRegister(dbTotalSize)
 	prometheus.MustRegister(dbTotalSizeDebug)