diff --git a/docs/topics/cache.txt b/docs/topics/cache.txt
index ec90d89bba..9683a44931 100644
--- a/docs/topics/cache.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/cache.txt
@@ -803,6 +803,9 @@ The basic interface is ``set(key, value, timeout)`` and ``get(key)``::
     >>> cache.get('my_key')
     'hello, world!'
 
+``key`` should be a ``str`` (or ``unicode`` on Python 2), and ``value`` can be
+any picklable Python object.
+
 The ``timeout`` argument is optional and defaults to the ``timeout`` argument
 of the appropriate backend in the :setting:`CACHES` setting (explained above).
 It's the number of seconds the value should be stored in the cache. Passing in