diff --git a/dvc/commands/experiments/apply.py b/dvc/commands/experiments/apply.py
index 1114b369ed..98392eef2a 100644
--- a/dvc/commands/experiments/apply.py
+++ b/dvc/commands/experiments/apply.py
@@ -4,13 +4,21 @@
 from dvc.cli import completion
 from dvc.cli.command import CmdBase
 from dvc.cli.utils import append_doc_link
+from dvc.ui import ui
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
 class CmdExperimentsApply(CmdBase):
     def run(self):
-        self.repo.experiments.apply(self.args.experiment, force=self.args.force)
+        if not self.args.force:
+            ui.write(
+                "The --no-force option is deprecated and will be removed in a future"
+                " DVC release. To revert the result of 'exp apply', run:\n"
+                "\n\tgit reset --hard\n"
+                "\tgit stash apply refs/exps/apply/stash\n"
+            )
+        self.repo.experiments.apply(self.args.experiment)
 
         return 0
 
@@ -25,11 +33,10 @@ def add_parser(experiments_subparsers, parent_parser):
         formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
     )
     experiments_apply_parser.add_argument(
-        "-f",
-        "--force",
-        action="store_true",
-        default=False,
-        help="Do not prompt when removing working directory files.",
+        "--no-force",
+        action="store_false",
+        dest="force",
+        help="Fail if this command would overwrite conflicting changes.",
     )
     experiments_apply_parser.add_argument(
         "experiment", help="Experiment to be applied."
diff --git a/tests/unit/command/test_experiments.py b/tests/unit/command/test_experiments.py
index d9a6eeb6b2..c102e57304 100644
--- a/tests/unit/command/test_experiments.py
+++ b/tests/unit/command/test_experiments.py
@@ -27,19 +27,7 @@ def test_experiments_apply(dvc, scm, mocker):
 
     assert cmd.run() == 0
 
-    m.assert_called_once_with(cmd.repo, "exp_rev", force=False)
-
-
-def test_experiments_apply_force(dvc, scm, mocker):
-    cli_args = parse_args(["experiments", "apply", "exp_rev", "--force"])
-    assert cli_args.func == CmdExperimentsApply
-
-    cmd = cli_args.func(cli_args)
-    m = mocker.patch("dvc.repo.experiments.apply.apply", return_value={})
-
-    assert cmd.run() == 0
-
-    m.assert_called_once_with(cmd.repo, "exp_rev", force=True)
+    m.assert_called_once_with(cmd.repo, "exp_rev")
 
 
 def test_experiments_diff(dvc, scm, mocker):