diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index 32f065ca6a9382ba7b496d9c6606a72941dc0c1f..6410d7cd983403a35911b75949641fc37e93d16b 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -1366,7 +1366,7 @@ fsck.skipList::
 gc.aggressiveDepth::
 	The depth parameter used in the delta compression
 	algorithm used by 'git gc --aggressive'.  This defaults
-	to 250.
+	to 50.
 
 gc.aggressiveWindow::
 	The window size parameter used in the delta compression
diff --git a/builtin/gc.c b/builtin/gc.c
index 332bcf7e7a0ae1900199349870103c388c9ffb35..069950d0b417f5eb97cd756ae32df7a2fb13abce 100644
--- a/builtin/gc.c
+++ b/builtin/gc.c
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ static const char * const builtin_gc_usage[] = {
 
 static int pack_refs = 1;
 static int prune_reflogs = 1;
-static int aggressive_depth = 250;
+static int aggressive_depth = 50;
 static int aggressive_window = 250;
 static int gc_auto_threshold = 6700;
 static int gc_auto_pack_limit = 50;