diff --git a/config/config.go b/config/config.go
index 626fd3d1e5..401bee4f4c 100644
--- a/config/config.go
+++ b/config/config.go
@@ -526,7 +526,7 @@ type HTTPClientConfig struct {
 	ProxyURL URL `yaml:"proxy_url,omitempty"`
 	// TLSConfig to use to connect to the targets.
 	TLSConfig TLSConfig `yaml:"tls_config,omitempty"`
-	// If set, override whether to use HTTP KeepAlive - defaults OFF
+	// If set, override whether to use HTTP KeepAlive - scraping defaults OFF, remote read/write defaults ON
 	KeepAlive *bool `yaml:"keep_alive,omitempty"`
 
 	// Catches all undefined fields and must be empty after parsing.
diff --git a/storage/remote/client.go b/storage/remote/client.go
index fc60cfba68..1a20dc43a1 100644
--- a/storage/remote/client.go
+++ b/storage/remote/client.go
@@ -51,6 +51,11 @@ type clientConfig struct {
 
 // NewClient creates a new Client.
 func NewClient(index int, conf *clientConfig) (*Client, error) {
+	// If not specified in config, allow HTTP connections for remote API to use keep-alive
+	if conf.httpClientConfig.KeepAlive == nil {
+		val := true
+		conf.httpClientConfig.KeepAlive = &val
+	}
 	httpClient, err := httputil.NewClientFromConfig(conf.httpClientConfig)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err