diff --git a/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt b/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt
index 61270364a7..ec2945efe6 100644
--- a/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt
@@ -2382,10 +2382,14 @@ Defaults to no limit.
 +
 Maximum number of leaf terms to allow in a query. Too-large queries may
 perform poorly, so setting this option causes query parsing to fail fast
-before attempting to send them to the secondary index. Set to 0 for no
-limit.
+before attempting to send them to the secondary index. Should this limit
+be reached, database is used instead of index as applicable.
 +
-Defaults to no limit.
+When the index type is `LUCENE`, also sets the maximum number of clauses
+permitted per BooleanQuery. This is so that all enforced query limits
+are the same.
++
+Defaults to 1024.
 
 ==== Lucene configuration
 
@@ -2394,14 +2398,6 @@ Open and closed changes are indexed in separate indexes named
 
 The following settings are only used when the index type is `LUCENE`.
 
-[[index.defaultMaxClauseCount]]index.defaultMaxClauseCount::
-+
-Only used when the type is `LUCENE`.
-+
-Sets the maximum number of clauses permitted per BooleanQuery.
-+
-Defaults to 1024.
-
 [[index.name.ramBufferSize]]index.name.ramBufferSize::
 +
 Determines the amount of RAM that may be used for buffering added documents
@@ -2445,7 +2441,6 @@ Sample Lucene index configuration:
 ----
 [index]
   type = LUCENE
-  defaultMaxClauseCount = 2048
 
 [index "changes_open"]
   ramBufferSize = 60 m
diff --git a/gerrit-lucene/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/lucene/LuceneChangeIndex.java b/gerrit-lucene/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/lucene/LuceneChangeIndex.java
index 5c3b6294f9..d703bed0cd 100644
--- a/gerrit-lucene/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/lucene/LuceneChangeIndex.java
+++ b/gerrit-lucene/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/lucene/LuceneChangeIndex.java
@@ -248,7 +248,7 @@ public class LuceneChangeIndex implements ChangeIndex {
             CUSTOM_CHAR_MAPPING);
     queryBuilder = new QueryBuilder(analyzer);
 
-    BooleanQuery.setMaxClauseCount(cfg.getInt("index", "defaultMaxClauseCount",
+    BooleanQuery.setMaxClauseCount(cfg.getInt("index", "maxTerms",
         BooleanQuery.getMaxClauseCount()));
 
     GerritIndexWriterConfig openConfig =
diff --git a/gerrit-server/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/server/index/IndexConfig.java b/gerrit-server/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/server/index/IndexConfig.java
index 00aa081180..125d32d9c5 100644
--- a/gerrit-server/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/server/index/IndexConfig.java
+++ b/gerrit-server/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/server/index/IndexConfig.java
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Config;
  */
 @AutoValue
 public abstract class IndexConfig {
-  private static final int DEFAULT_MAX_TERMS = 500;
+  private static final int DEFAULT_MAX_TERMS = 1024;
   private static final int DEFAULT_MAX_PREFIX_TERMS = 100;
 
   public static IndexConfig createDefault() {
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ public abstract class IndexConfig {
     return new AutoValue_IndexConfig(
         checkLimit(maxLimit, "maxLimit", Integer.MAX_VALUE),
         checkLimit(maxPages, "maxPages", Integer.MAX_VALUE),
-        checkLimit(maxTerms, "maxTerms", Integer.MAX_VALUE),
+        checkLimit(maxTerms, "maxTerms", DEFAULT_MAX_TERMS),
         checkLimit(maxPrefixTerms, "maxPrefixTerms", DEFAULT_MAX_PREFIX_TERMS));
   }