diff --git a/config.yaml.example b/config.yaml.example
index 616b5c83..ca5360df 100644
--- a/config.yaml.example
+++ b/config.yaml.example
@@ -28,6 +28,10 @@ source:
   # Preserve TTLs and WRITETIMEs of cells in the source database. Note that this
   # option is *incompatible* when copying tables with collections (lists, maps, sets).
   preserveTimestamps: true
+  # optional, default TTL in seconds to use if source.preserveTimestamps AND IF original TTL is null, final TTL to be set, if 0 or unset it will be ignored
+  # final write TTL set will be relative to writetimestamp, so: defaultTTL - now-writetimestamp
+  # it assumes writetimestamps are in UTC
+  #defaultTTL: 0
   # Number of splits to use - this should be at minimum the amount of cores
   # available in the Spark cluster, and optimally more; higher splits will lead
   # to more fine-grained resumes. Aim for 8 * (Spark cores).
diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/scylladb/migrator/config/SourceSettings.scala b/src/main/scala/com/scylladb/migrator/config/SourceSettings.scala
index e4dd1229..34a1dc9a 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/com/scylladb/migrator/config/SourceSettings.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/scylladb/migrator/config/SourceSettings.scala
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ object SourceSettings {
                        connections: Option[Int],
                        fetchSize: Int,
                        preserveTimestamps: Boolean,
+                       defaultTTL: Option[Long],
                        where: Option[String])
       extends SourceSettings
   case class DynamoDB(endpoint: Option[DynamoDBEndpoint],
diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/scylladb/migrator/readers/Cassandra.scala b/src/main/scala/com/scylladb/migrator/readers/Cassandra.scala
index b2dbd11a..1bfcb2fd 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/com/scylladb/migrator/readers/Cassandra.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/scylladb/migrator/readers/Cassandra.scala
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.sql.types.{ IntegerType, LongType, StructField, StructTy
 import org.apache.spark.sql.{ DataFrame, Row, SparkSession }
 import org.apache.spark.unsafe.types.UTF8String
 
+import java.time.Instant
 import scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer
 
 object Cassandra {
@@ -92,7 +93,8 @@ object Cassandra {
   def explodeRow(row: Row,
                  schema: StructType,
                  primaryKeyOrdinals: Map[String, Int],
-                 regularKeyOrdinals: Map[String, (Int, Int, Int)]) =
+                 regularKeyOrdinals: Map[String, (Int, Int, Int)],
+                 defaultTTL: Long) =
     if (regularKeyOrdinals.isEmpty) List(row)
     else {
       val rowTimestampsToFields =
@@ -126,7 +128,16 @@ object Cassandra {
 
       timestampsToFields
         .map {
-          case ((ttl, writetime), fields) =>
+          case ((ttl, writetime), fields) => {
+            val writetimestamp = writetime.getOrElse(CassandraOption.Unset)
+            val baseTTL = if (defaultTTL > 0) defaultTTL else 0L
+            val deltaTTL = if (writetimestamp == CassandraOption.Unset) {
+              0
+            } else {
+              baseTTL - (System.currentTimeMillis - writetimestamp.asInstanceOf[Long] / 1000) / 1000
+            }
+            val finalttl =
+              if (writetimestamp != CassandraOption.Unset && (deltaTTL > 0)) deltaTTL else 0L
             val newValues = schema.fields.map { field =>
               primaryKeyOrdinals
                 .get(field.name)
@@ -135,9 +146,10 @@ object Cassandra {
                   else Some(row.get(ord))
                 }
                 .getOrElse(fields.getOrElse(field.name, CassandraOption.Unset))
-            } ++ Seq(ttl.getOrElse(0L), writetime.getOrElse(CassandraOption.Unset))
+            } ++ Seq(ttl.getOrElse(finalttl), writetimestamp)
 
             Row(newValues: _*)
+          }
         }
     }
 
@@ -168,7 +180,8 @@ object Cassandra {
                                               df: DataFrame,
                                               timestampColumns: Option[TimestampColumns],
                                               origSchema: StructType,
-                                              tableDef: TableDef): DataFrame =
+                                              tableDef: TableDef,
+                                              defaultTTL: Long): DataFrame =
     timestampColumns match {
       case None => df
       case Some(TimestampColumns(ttl, writeTime)) =>
@@ -193,7 +206,8 @@ object Cassandra {
             _,
             broadcastSchema.value,
             broadcastPrimaryKeyOrdinals.value,
-            broadcastRegularKeyOrdinals.value)
+            broadcastRegularKeyOrdinals.value,
+            defaultTTL)
         }(RowEncoder(finalSchema))
 
     }
@@ -269,7 +283,8 @@ object Cassandra {
       spark.createDataFrame(rdd, selection.schema),
       selection.timestampColumns,
       origSchema,
-      tableDef
+      tableDef,
+      source.defaultTTL.getOrElse(0L)
     )
 
     SourceDataFrame(resultingDataframe, selection.timestampColumns, true)