diff --git a/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/configuration/FlinkOptions.java b/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/configuration/FlinkOptions.java
index 0984296ee54ef..5ff7a59cd2588 100644
--- a/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/configuration/FlinkOptions.java
+++ b/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/configuration/FlinkOptions.java
@@ -579,6 +579,14 @@ private FlinkOptions() {
       .withDescription("Number of commits to retain. So data will be retained for num_of_commits * time_between_commits (scheduled).\n"
           + "This also directly translates into how much you can incrementally pull on this table, default 30");
 
+  public static final ConfigOption<Integer> CLEAN_RETAIN_HOURS = ConfigOptions
+          .key("clean.retain_hours")
+          .intType()
+          .defaultValue(24)// default 24 hours
+          .withDescription("Number of hours for which commits need to be retained. This config provides a more flexible option as"
+                  + "compared to number of commits retained for cleaning service. Setting this property ensures all the files, but the latest in a file group,"
+                  + " corresponding to commits with commit times older than the configured number of hours to be retained are cleaned.");
+
   public static final ConfigOption<Integer> CLEAN_RETAIN_FILE_VERSIONS = ConfigOptions
       .key("clean.retain_file_versions")
       .intType()
diff --git a/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/streamer/FlinkStreamerConfig.java b/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/streamer/FlinkStreamerConfig.java
index 3a69e5d080903..3ba1c6230ffd3 100644
--- a/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/streamer/FlinkStreamerConfig.java
+++ b/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/streamer/FlinkStreamerConfig.java
@@ -272,6 +272,12 @@ public class FlinkStreamerConfig extends Configuration {
           + "This also directly translates into how much you can incrementally pull on this table, default 10")
   public Integer cleanRetainCommits = 10;
 
+  @Parameter(names = {"--clean-retain-hours"},
+      description = "Number of hours for which commits need to be retained. This config provides a more flexible option as"
+          + "compared to number of commits retained for cleaning service. Setting this property ensures all the files, but the latest in a file group,"
+          + " corresponding to commits with commit times older than the configured number of hours to be retained are cleaned. default 24")
+  public Integer cleanRetainHours = 24;
+
   @Parameter(names = {"--clean-retain-file-versions"},
       description = "Number of file versions to retain. Each file group will be retained for this number of version. default 5")
   public Integer cleanRetainFileVersions = 5;
@@ -405,6 +411,7 @@ public static org.apache.flink.configuration.Configuration toFlinkConfig(FlinkSt
     conf.setBoolean(FlinkOptions.CLEAN_ASYNC_ENABLED, config.cleanAsyncEnabled);
     conf.setString(FlinkOptions.CLEAN_POLICY, config.cleanPolicy);
     conf.setInteger(FlinkOptions.CLEAN_RETAIN_COMMITS, config.cleanRetainCommits);
+    conf.setInteger(FlinkOptions.CLEAN_RETAIN_HOURS, config.cleanRetainHours);
     conf.setInteger(FlinkOptions.CLEAN_RETAIN_FILE_VERSIONS, config.cleanRetainFileVersions);
     conf.setInteger(FlinkOptions.ARCHIVE_MAX_COMMITS, config.archiveMaxCommits);
     conf.setInteger(FlinkOptions.ARCHIVE_MIN_COMMITS, config.archiveMinCommits);
diff --git a/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/util/StreamerUtil.java b/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/util/StreamerUtil.java
index 4e819ecd7b93a..5fb5162725b97 100644
--- a/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/util/StreamerUtil.java
+++ b/hudi-flink-datasource/hudi-flink/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/util/StreamerUtil.java
@@ -187,6 +187,7 @@ public static HoodieWriteConfig getHoodieClientConfig(
             .withCleanConfig(HoodieCleanConfig.newBuilder()
                 .withAsyncClean(conf.getBoolean(FlinkOptions.CLEAN_ASYNC_ENABLED))
                 .retainCommits(conf.getInteger(FlinkOptions.CLEAN_RETAIN_COMMITS))
+                .cleanerNumHoursRetained(conf.getInteger(FlinkOptions.CLEAN_RETAIN_HOURS))
                 .retainFileVersions(conf.getInteger(FlinkOptions.CLEAN_RETAIN_FILE_VERSIONS))
                 // override and hardcode to 20,
                 // actually Flink cleaning is always with parallelism 1 now