diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index d3ce0180f..c9792d628 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ etcd is Apache 2.0 licensed and accepts contributions via GitHub pull requests.
 # Email and chat
 
 - Email: [etcd-dev](https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/etcd-dev)
-- IRC: #[etcd](irc://irc.freenode.org:6667/#etcd) IRC channel on freenode.org
 - Slack: [#etcd](https://kubernetes.slack.com/messages/C3HD8ARJ5/details/)
 
 ## Getting started
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2e0dc98d3..3a5ed0d7f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ Now it's time to dig into the full etcd API and other guides.
 ## Contact
 
 - Mailing list: [etcd-dev](https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/etcd-dev)
-- IRC: #[etcd](irc://irc.freenode.org:6667/#etcd) on freenode.org
+- Slack: [#etcd](https://kubernetes.slack.com/messages/C3HD8ARJ5/details/)
 - Planning: [milestones](https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/milestones)
 - Bugs: [issues](https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/issues)