diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 4d7046eb..04f0b2b5 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ None of these is essential for a pull request, but they will all help
 
 ### Building from source
 
-To build the source you will need Java 7 or later. The code is built with Gradle:
+To build the source you will need Java 8 or later. The code is built with Gradle:
 
 ```
 $ ./gradlew build
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 49b833ad..9d116341 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ To learn more about Spring REST Docs, please consult the [reference documentatio
 
 ## Building from source
 
-You will need Java 7 or later to build Spring REST Docs. It is built using [Gradle][10]:
+You will need Java 8 or later to build Spring REST Docs. It is built using [Gradle][10]:
 
 ```
 ./gradlew build