diff --git a/django/contrib/auth/migrations/0008_alter_user_username_max_length.py b/django/contrib/auth/migrations/0008_alter_user_username_max_length.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..56705fa58f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/django/contrib/auth/migrations/0008_alter_user_username_max_length.py
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+import django.core.validators
+from django.db import migrations, models
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ('auth', '0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages'),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.AlterField(
+            model_name='user',
+            name='username',
+            field=models.CharField(
+                error_messages={'unique': 'A user with that username already exists.'},
+                help_text='Required. 254 characters or fewer. Letters, digits and @/./+/-/_ only.',
+                max_length=254,
+                unique=True,
+                validators=[
+                    django.core.validators.RegexValidator(
+                        '^[\\w.@+-]+$', 'Enter a valid username. '
+                        'This value may contain only letters, numbers and @/./+/-/_ characters.'
+                    ),
+                ],
+                verbose_name='username',
+            ),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/django/contrib/auth/models.py b/django/contrib/auth/models.py
index 070d7d44356..dfa76977d7b 100644
--- a/django/contrib/auth/models.py
+++ b/django/contrib/auth/models.py
@@ -303,9 +303,9 @@ class AbstractUser(AbstractBaseUser, PermissionsMixin):
     """
     username = models.CharField(
         _('username'),
-        max_length=30,
+        max_length=254,
         unique=True,
-        help_text=_('Required. 30 characters or fewer. Letters, digits and @/./+/-/_ only.'),
+        help_text=_('Required. 254 characters or fewer. Letters, digits and @/./+/-/_ only.'),
         validators=[
             validators.RegexValidator(
                 r'^[\w.@+-]+$',
diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/auth.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/auth.txt
index 6cbfd88ac6f..6ca25813976 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/auth.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/auth.txt
@@ -21,9 +21,13 @@ Fields
 
     .. attribute:: username
 
-        Required. 30 characters or fewer. Usernames may contain alphanumeric,
+        Required. 254 characters or fewer. Usernames may contain alphanumeric,
         ``_``, ``@``, ``+``, ``.`` and ``-`` characters.
 
+        .. versionchanged:: 1.10
+
+            The ``max_length`` increased from 30 to 254 characters.
+
     .. attribute:: first_name
 
         Optional. 30 characters or fewer.
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.10.txt b/docs/releases/1.10.txt
index 602e34a6f98..b291dcfd41a 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.10.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.10.txt
@@ -258,6 +258,36 @@ to its proxied concrete class. This inconsistency was fixed by returning the
 full set of fields pointing to a concrete class or one of its proxies in both
 cases.
 
+:attr:`AbstractUser.username <django.contrib.auth.models.User.username>` ``max_length`` increased to 254
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A migration for :attr:`django.contrib.auth.models.User.username` is included.
+If you have a custom user model inheriting from ``AbstractUser``, you'll need
+to generate and apply a database migration for your user model.
+
+If you want to preserve the 30 character limit for usernames, use a custom form
+when creating a user or changing usernames::
+
+    from django.contrib.auth.forms import UserCreationForm
+
+    class MyUserCreationForm(UserCreationForm):
+        username = forms.CharField(
+            max_length=30,
+            help_text='Required. 30 characters or fewer. Letters, digits and @/./+/-/_ only.',
+        )
+
+If you wish to keep this restriction in the admin, set ``UserAdmin.add_form``
+to use this form::
+
+    from django.contrib.auth.admin import UserAdmin
+    from django.contrib.auth.models import User
+
+    class MyUserAdmin(UserAdmin):
+        add_form = MyUserCreationForm
+
+    admin.site.unregister(User)
+    admin.site.register(User, MyUserAdmin)
+
 Miscellaneous
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~