diff --git a/app/vmselect/prometheus/prometheus.go b/app/vmselect/prometheus/prometheus.go
index f3747acce4..b65fb159bb 100644
--- a/app/vmselect/prometheus/prometheus.go
+++ b/app/vmselect/prometheus/prometheus.go
@@ -813,6 +813,9 @@ func QueryHandler(qt *querytracer.Tracer, startTime time.Time, at *auth.Token, w
 		start -= offset
 		end := start
 		start = end - window
+		if start < 0 {
+			start = 0
+		}
 		// Do not include data point with a timestamp matching the lower boundary of the window as Prometheus does.
 		start++
 		if end < start {
diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index befc4ec402..a52771f549 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ The sandbox cluster installation is running under the constant load generated by
 * BUGFIX: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): exit if there is config syntax error in [`scrape_config_files`](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html#loading-scrape-configs-from-multiple-files) when `-promscrape.config.strictParse=true`. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5508).
 * BUGFIX: [vmui](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#vmui): fix a link for the statistic inaccuracy explanation in the cardinality explorer tool. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5460).
 * BUGFIX: all: fix potential panic during components shutdown when [metrics push](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#push-metrics) is configured. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5548). Thanks to @zhdd99 for the [pull request](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/pull/5549).
+* BUGFIX: [vmselect](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmselect.html): properly determine time range search for instant queries with too big look-behind window like `foo[100y]`. Previously, such queries could return empty responses even if `foo` is present in database.
+
 
 ## [v1.96.0](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.96.0)