diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index be5be706d40ff..7e00b8802bd01 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ doc/developers/maintainer.rst
 doc/index.rst
 doc/min_dependency_table.rst
 doc/min_dependency_substitutions.rst
+# release notes generated by towncrier
+doc/whats_new/notes-towncrier.rst
+
 *.pdf
 pip-log.txt
 scikit_learn.egg-info/