diff --git a/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt b/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt
index 211be2e987..29f93b259e 100644
--- a/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config-gerrit.txt
@@ -1423,7 +1423,7 @@ This setting only applies if
 Maximum number of connections to keep idle in the pool.  If there
 are more idle connections, connections will be closed instead of
 being returned back to the pool.
-Default is 4.
+Default is min(<<database.poolLimit, database.poolLimit>>, 16).
 +
 This setting only applies if
 <<database.connectionPool,database.connectionPool>> is true.
diff --git a/gerrit-server/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/server/schema/DataSourceProvider.java b/gerrit-server/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/server/schema/DataSourceProvider.java
index edce7f18a5..0c3bf673e4 100644
--- a/gerrit-server/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/server/schema/DataSourceProvider.java
+++ b/gerrit-server/src/main/java/com/google/gerrit/server/schema/DataSourceProvider.java
@@ -129,9 +129,11 @@ public class DataSourceProvider implements Provider<DataSource>,
       if (password != null && !password.isEmpty()) {
         ds.setPassword(password);
       }
-      ds.setMaxActive(threadSettingsConfig.getDatabasePoolLimit());
+      int poolLimit = threadSettingsConfig.getDatabasePoolLimit();
+      ds.setMaxActive(poolLimit);
       ds.setMinIdle(cfg.getInt("database", "poolminidle", 4));
-      ds.setMaxIdle(cfg.getInt("database", "poolmaxidle", 4));
+      ds.setMaxIdle(
+          cfg.getInt("database", "poolmaxidle", Math.min(poolLimit, 16)));
       ds.setMaxWait(ConfigUtil.getTimeUnit(cfg, "database", null,
           "poolmaxwait", MILLISECONDS.convert(30, SECONDS), MILLISECONDS));
       ds.setInitialSize(ds.getMinIdle());