diff --git a/src/dsp_tools/cli.py b/src/dsp_tools/cli.py
index 67dc482ec..4887ef695 100644
--- a/src/dsp_tools/cli.py
+++ b/src/dsp_tools/cli.py
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ def _make_parser(
     )
     parser_process_files.add_argument("--nthreads", type=int, default=None, help="number of threads to use")
     parser_process_files.add_argument(
-        "--batchsize", type=int, default=5000, help="number of files to process before Python exits"
+        "--batchsize", type=int, default=3000, help="number of files to process before Python exits"
     )
     parser_process_files.add_argument("xml_file", help="path to XML file containing the data")