diff --git a/docs/reference/ccr/apis/follow/get-follow-stats.asciidoc b/docs/reference/ccr/apis/follow/get-follow-stats.asciidoc
index 99488afeb98e..c910b0431a6e 100644
--- a/docs/reference/ccr/apis/follow/get-follow-stats.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/ccr/apis/follow/get-follow-stats.asciidoc
@@ -75,6 +75,9 @@ task. In this situation, the following task must be resumed manually with the
 `index`::
 (string) The name of the follower index.
 
+`total_global_checkpoint_lag`::
+(long) Indication of how much the follower is lagging the leader. This is the sum of the difference between the `leader_global_checkpoint` and the `follower_global_checkpoint` for all shards.
+
 //Begin shards
 `shards`::
 (array) An array of shard-level following task statistics.
@@ -219,6 +222,7 @@ The API returns the following results:
   "indices" : [
     {
       "index" : "follower_index",
+      "total_global_checkpoint_lag" : 256,
       "shards" : [
         {
           "remote_cluster" : "remote_cluster",
@@ -255,6 +259,7 @@ The API returns the following results:
   ]
 }
 --------------------------------------------------
+// TESTRESPONSE[s/"total_global_checkpoint_lag" : 256/"total_global_checkpoint_lag" : 0/]
 // TESTRESPONSE[s/"leader_global_checkpoint" : 1024/"leader_global_checkpoint" : $body.indices.0.shards.0.leader_global_checkpoint/]
 // TESTRESPONSE[s/"leader_max_seq_no" : 1536/"leader_max_seq_no" : $body.indices.0.shards.0.leader_max_seq_no/]
 // TESTRESPONSE[s/"follower_global_checkpoint" : 768/"follower_global_checkpoint" : $body.indices.0.shards.0.follower_global_checkpoint/]
diff --git a/docs/reference/ccr/apis/get-ccr-stats.asciidoc b/docs/reference/ccr/apis/get-ccr-stats.asciidoc
index 6d43e089c247..02f5cf886049 100644
--- a/docs/reference/ccr/apis/get-ccr-stats.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/ccr/apis/get-ccr-stats.asciidoc
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ The API returns the following results:
     "indices" : [
       {
         "index" : "follower_index",
+        "total_global_checkpoint_lag" : 256,
         "shards" : [
           {
             "remote_cluster" : "remote_cluster",
@@ -149,6 +150,7 @@ The API returns the following results:
   }
 }
 --------------------------------------------------
+// TESTRESPONSE[s/"total_global_checkpoint_lag" : 256/"total_global_checkpoint_lag" : 0/]
 // TESTRESPONSE[s/"number_of_failed_follow_indices" : 0/"number_of_failed_follow_indices" : $body.auto_follow_stats.number_of_failed_follow_indices/]
 // TESTRESPONSE[s/"number_of_failed_remote_cluster_state_requests" : 0/"number_of_failed_remote_cluster_state_requests" : $body.auto_follow_stats.number_of_failed_remote_cluster_state_requests/]
 // TESTRESPONSE[s/"number_of_successful_follow_indices" : 1/"number_of_successful_follow_indices" : $body.auto_follow_stats.number_of_successful_follow_indices/]
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/rest/src/yamlRestTest/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ccr/follow_stats.yml b/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/rest/src/yamlRestTest/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ccr/follow_stats.yml
index df74a608dbe8..fb37e9a05c5c 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/rest/src/yamlRestTest/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ccr/follow_stats.yml
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/rest/src/yamlRestTest/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ccr/follow_stats.yml
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@
       ccr.follow_stats:
         index: bar
   - match: { indices.0.index: "bar" }
+  - match: { indices.0.total_global_checkpoint_lag: 0 }
   - match: { indices.0.shards.0.leader_index: "foo" }
   - match: { indices.0.shards.0.follower_index: "bar" }
   - match: { indices.0.shards.0.shard_id: 0 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ccr/action/FollowStatsAction.java b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ccr/action/FollowStatsAction.java
index 726257910c9a..1fdee42e7e18 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ccr/action/FollowStatsAction.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ccr/action/FollowStatsAction.java
@@ -92,7 +92,10 @@ public class FollowStatsAction extends ActionType<FollowStatsAction.StatsRespons
                     taskResponsesByIndex.entrySet().iterator(),
                     indexEntry -> Iterators.concat(
                         Iterators.<ToXContent>single(
-                            (builder, params) -> builder.startObject().field("index", indexEntry.getKey()).startArray("shards")
+                            (builder, params) -> builder.startObject()
+                                .field("index", indexEntry.getKey())
+                                .field("total_global_checkpoint_lag", calcFollowerToLeaderLaggingOps(indexEntry.getValue()))
+                                .startArray("shards")
                         ),
                         indexEntry.getValue().values().iterator(),
                         Iterators.single((builder, params) -> builder.endArray().endObject())
@@ -102,6 +105,14 @@ public class FollowStatsAction extends ActionType<FollowStatsAction.StatsRespons
             );
         }
 
+        private static long calcFollowerToLeaderLaggingOps(Map<Integer, StatsResponse> followShardTaskStats) {
+            return followShardTaskStats.values()
+                .stream()
+                .map(StatsResponse::status)
+                .mapToLong(s -> s.leaderGlobalCheckpoint() - s.followerGlobalCheckpoint())
+                .sum();
+        }
+
         @Override
         public boolean equals(Object o) {
             if (this == o) return true;