diff --git a/docs/about/release-notes.md b/docs/about/release-notes.md
index be7b2f49d8..b690b21573 100644
--- a/docs/about/release-notes.md
+++ b/docs/about/release-notes.md
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ The current and past members of the MkDocs team.
 
 ## Development Version
 
+* Expand {sha} and {version} in gh-deploy commit message (#1410).
 * Compress `sitemap.xml` (#1130).
 * Defer loading JS scripts (#1380).
 * Add a title attribute to the search input (#1379).
diff --git a/mkdocs/__main__.py b/mkdocs/__main__.py
index 95c649f804..8c231180fe 100644
--- a/mkdocs/__main__.py
+++ b/mkdocs/__main__.py
@@ -82,8 +82,8 @@ def common_options(f):
 reload_help = "Enable the live reloading in the development server (this is the default)"
 no_reload_help = "Disable the live reloading in the development server."
 dirty_reload_help = "Enable the live reloading in the development server, but only re-build files that have changed"
-commit_message_help = ("A commit message to use when commiting to the "
-                       "Github Pages remote branch")
+commit_message_help = ("A commit message to use when committing to the "
+                       "Github Pages remote branch. Commit {sha} and MkDocs {version} are available as expansions")
 remote_branch_help = ("The remote branch to commit to for Github Pages. This "
                       "overrides the value specified in config")
 remote_name_help = ("The remote name to commit to for Github Pages. This "
diff --git a/mkdocs/commands/gh_deploy.py b/mkdocs/commands/gh_deploy.py
index 13d359cff1..b7b54be713 100644
--- a/mkdocs/commands/gh_deploy.py
+++ b/mkdocs/commands/gh_deploy.py
@@ -56,8 +56,9 @@ def gh_deploy(config, message=None, force=False):
                   'repository')
 
     if message is None:
-        sha = _get_current_sha()
-        message = default_message.format(version=mkdocs.__version__, sha=sha)
+        message = default_message
+    sha = _get_current_sha()
+    message = message.format(version=mkdocs.__version__, sha=sha)
 
     remote_branch = config['remote_branch']
     remote_name = config['remote_name']