diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 14427b3c2..2f5680450 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ Deprecated
 * ``sphinx.util.detect_encoding()``
 * ``sphinx.util.get_module_source()``
 * ``sphinx.util.inspect.Signature``
+* ``sphinx.util.inspect.safe_getmembers()``
 
 Features added
 --------------
diff --git a/doc/extdev/deprecated.rst b/doc/extdev/deprecated.rst
index 6c2b05816..ad5abd0e9 100644
--- a/doc/extdev/deprecated.rst
+++ b/doc/extdev/deprecated.rst
@@ -87,6 +87,11 @@ The following is a list of deprecated interfaces.
      - ``sphinx.util.inspect.signature`` and
        ``sphinx.util.inspect.stringify_signature()``
 
+   * - ``sphinx.util.inspect.safe_getmembers()``
+     - 2.4
+     - 4.0
+     - ``inspect.getmembers()``
+
    * - ``sphinx.builders.gettext.POHEADER``
      - 2.3
      - 4.0
diff --git a/sphinx/util/inspect.py b/sphinx/util/inspect.py
index ab3038b05..41d60aebb 100644
--- a/sphinx/util/inspect.py
+++ b/sphinx/util/inspect.py
@@ -257,6 +257,8 @@ def safe_getattr(obj: Any, name: str, *defargs: Any) -> Any:
 def safe_getmembers(object: Any, predicate: Callable[[str], bool] = None,
                     attr_getter: Callable = safe_getattr) -> List[Tuple[str, Any]]:
     """A version of inspect.getmembers() that uses safe_getattr()."""
+    warnings.warn('safe_getmembers() is deprecated', RemovedInSphinx40Warning)
+
     results = []  # type: List[Tuple[str, Any]]
     for key in dir(object):
         try: