diff --git a/doc/core/pending_api_cleanups.md b/doc/core/pending_api_cleanups.md
index a9f176395c36b4206a02e4ba3c0229201d0e94a4..67d587deadc7becdd2cf0a972807307ea6de5b2e 100644
--- a/doc/core/pending_api_cleanups.md
+++ b/doc/core/pending_api_cleanups.md
@@ -11,4 +11,7 @@ This file lists all pending backward-compatibility changes that should
 be cleaned up the next time we are going to bump the major version
 number:
 
-(none currently)
+- remove `GRPC_ARG_MAX_MESSAGE_LENGTH` channel arg from
+  `include/grpc/impl/codegen/grpc_types.h` (commit `af00d8b`)
+  (cannot be done until after next grpc release, so that TensorFlow can
+  use the same code both internally and externally)
diff --git a/include/grpc/impl/codegen/grpc_types.h b/include/grpc/impl/codegen/grpc_types.h
index efa008ba43dda5c5e974f9620e1bac139057baed..c565d70b93125377f9a4e73a3bd707182a280321 100644
--- a/include/grpc/impl/codegen/grpc_types.h
+++ b/include/grpc/impl/codegen/grpc_types.h
@@ -151,6 +151,8 @@ typedef struct {
 /** Maximum message length that the channel can receive. Int valued, bytes.
     -1 means unlimited. */
 #define GRPC_ARG_MAX_RECEIVE_MESSAGE_LENGTH "grpc.max_receive_message_length"
+/** \deprecated For backward compatibility. */
+#define GRPC_ARG_MAX_MESSAGE_LENGTH GRPC_ARG_MAX_RECEIVE_MESSAGE_LENGTH
 /** Maximum message length that the channel can send. Int valued, bytes.
     -1 means unlimited. */
 #define GRPC_ARG_MAX_SEND_MESSAGE_LENGTH "grpc.max_send_message_length"