diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index b78c236be..9b3c7ac9b 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ The following tip changes can be tested by building VictoriaMetrics components f
 * BUGFIX: `vmstorage`: added missing `-inmemoryDataFlushInterval` command-line flag, which was missing in [VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html) after implementing [this feature](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/3337) in [v1.85.0](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.85.0).
 * BUGFIX: [MetricsQL](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/MetricsQL.html): properly handle queries, which wrap [rollup functions](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/MetricsQL.html#rollup-functions) with multiple arguments without explicitly specified lookbehind window in square brackets into [aggregate functions](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/MetricsQL.html#aggregate-functions). For example, `sum(quantile_over_time(0.5, process_resident_memory_bytes))` was resulting to `expecting at least 2 args to ...; got 1 args' error. Thanks to @atykhyy for [the pull request](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/pull/5414).
 * BUGFIX: [MetricsQL](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/MetricsQL.html): properly return results from [bottomk](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/MetricsQL.html#bottomk) and `bottomk_*()` functions when some of these results contain NaN values. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5506). Thanks to @xiaozongyang for [the fix](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/pull/5509).
+* BUGFIX: `vmstorage`: properly check for `storage/prefetchedMetricIDs` cache expiration deadline. Before, this cache was limited only by size.
 
 ## [v1.87.12](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.87.12)
 
diff --git a/lib/storage/storage.go b/lib/storage/storage.go
index 0816c558e..9696e9ddb 100644
--- a/lib/storage/storage.go
+++ b/lib/storage/storage.go
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/lib/workingsetcache"
 	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/fastcache"
 	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/metricsql"
+	"github.com/valyala/fastrand"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -1256,10 +1257,13 @@ func (s *Storage) prefetchMetricNames(qt *querytracer.Tracer, accountID, project
 	// Store the pre-fetched metricIDs, so they aren't pre-fetched next time.
 	s.prefetchedMetricIDsLock.Lock()
 	var prefetchedMetricIDsNew *uint64set.Set
-	if fasttime.UnixTimestamp() < atomic.LoadUint64(&s.prefetchedMetricIDsDeadline) {
+	if fasttime.UnixTimestamp() > atomic.LoadUint64(&s.prefetchedMetricIDsDeadline) {
 		// Periodically reset the prefetchedMetricIDs in order to limit its size.
 		prefetchedMetricIDsNew = &uint64set.Set{}
-		atomic.StoreUint64(&s.prefetchedMetricIDsDeadline, fasttime.UnixTimestamp()+73*60)
+		deadlineSec := 73 * 60
+		jitterSec := fastrand.Uint32n(uint32(deadlineSec / 10))
+		metricIDsDeadline := fasttime.UnixTimestamp() + uint64(deadlineSec) + uint64(jitterSec)
+		atomic.StoreUint64(&s.prefetchedMetricIDsDeadline, metricIDsDeadline)
 	} else {
 		prefetchedMetricIDsNew = prefetchedMetricIDs.Clone()
 	}