diff --git a/docs/changelog/133946.yaml b/docs/changelog/133946.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..89d45e0212d0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changelog/133946.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+pr: 133946
+summary: Merging is now more aggressive by default, especially for segments under 16MB.
+area: Engine
+type: enhancement
+issues:
+ - 120624
+ - 129764
+ - 130328
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/MergePolicyConfig.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/MergePolicyConfig.java
index 9b507b5800ba1..523ff7a84c961 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/MergePolicyConfig.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/MergePolicyConfig.java
@@ -48,12 +48,12 @@
  *     Segments smaller than this are "rounded up" to this size, i.e. treated as
  *     equal (floor) size for merge selection. This is to prevent frequent
  *     flushing of tiny segments, thus preventing a long tail in the index. Default
- *     is <code>2mb</code>.
+ *     is <code>16mb</code>.
  *
  * <li><code>index.merge.policy.max_merge_at_once</code>:
  *
  *     Maximum number of segments to be merged at a time during "normal" merging.
- *     Default is <code>10</code>.
+ *     Default is <code>16</code>.
  *
  * <li><code>index.merge.policy.max_merged_segment</code>:
  *
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@
  * <li><code>index.merge.policy.segments_per_tier</code>:
  *
  *     Sets the allowed number of segments per tier. Smaller values mean more
- *     merging but fewer segments. Default is <code>10</code>. Note, this value needs to be
+ *     merging but fewer segments. Default is <code>8</code>. Note, this value needs to be
  *     &gt;= than the <code>max_merge_at_once</code> otherwise you'll force too many merges to
  *     occur.
  *
@@ -116,8 +116,8 @@ public final class MergePolicyConfig {
     private final ByteSizeValue defaultMaxTimeBasedMergedSegment;
 
     public static final double DEFAULT_EXPUNGE_DELETES_ALLOWED = 10d;
-    public static final ByteSizeValue DEFAULT_FLOOR_SEGMENT = ByteSizeValue.of(2, ByteSizeUnit.MB);
-    public static final int DEFAULT_MAX_MERGE_AT_ONCE = 10;
+    public static final ByteSizeValue DEFAULT_FLOOR_SEGMENT = ByteSizeValue.of(16, ByteSizeUnit.MB);
+    public static final int DEFAULT_MAX_MERGE_AT_ONCE = 16;
     public static final ByteSizeValue DEFAULT_MAX_MERGED_SEGMENT = ByteSizeValue.of(5, ByteSizeUnit.GB);
     public static final Setting<ByteSizeValue> DEFAULT_MAX_MERGED_SEGMENT_SETTING = Setting.byteSizeSetting(
         "indices.merge.policy.max_merged_segment",
@@ -139,9 +139,9 @@ public final class MergePolicyConfig {
         ByteSizeValue.ofBytes(Long.MAX_VALUE),
         Setting.Property.NodeScope
     );
-    public static final double DEFAULT_SEGMENTS_PER_TIER = 10.0d;
+    public static final double DEFAULT_SEGMENTS_PER_TIER = 8.0d;
     /**
-     * A default value for {@link LogByteSizeMergePolicy}'s merge factor: 32. This default value differs from the Lucene default of 10 in
+     * A default value for {@link LogByteSizeMergePolicy}'s merge factor: 32. This default value differs from the Lucene default of 8 in
      * order to account for the fact that Elasticsearch uses {@link LogByteSizeMergePolicy} for time-based data, where adjacent segment
      * merging ensures that segments have mostly non-overlapping time ranges if data gets ingested in timestamp order. In turn, this allows
      * range queries on the timestamp to remain efficient with high numbers of segments since most segments either don't match the query
@@ -292,7 +292,6 @@ MergePolicy getMergePolicy(MergePolicyConfig config, boolean isTimeBasedIndex) {
                 INDEX_MERGE_ENABLED
             );
         }
-        maxMergeAtOnce = adjustMaxMergeAtOnceIfNeeded(maxMergeAtOnce, segmentsPerTier);
         setMergePolicyType(mergePolicyType);
         setCompoundFormatThreshold(indexSettings.getValue(INDEX_COMPOUND_FORMAT_SETTING));
         setExpungeDeletesAllowed(forceMergeDeletesPctAllowed);
@@ -365,25 +364,6 @@ void setDeletesPctAllowed(Double deletesPctAllowed) {
         // LogByteSizeMergePolicy doesn't have a similar configuration option
     }
 
-    private int adjustMaxMergeAtOnceIfNeeded(int maxMergeAtOnce, double segmentsPerTier) {
-        // fixing maxMergeAtOnce, see TieredMergePolicy#setMaxMergeAtOnce
-        if (segmentsPerTier < maxMergeAtOnce) {
-            int newMaxMergeAtOnce = (int) segmentsPerTier;
-            // max merge at once should be at least 2
-            if (newMaxMergeAtOnce <= 1) {
-                newMaxMergeAtOnce = 2;
-            }
-            logger.debug(
-                "changing max_merge_at_once from [{}] to [{}] because segments_per_tier [{}] has to be higher or " + "equal to it",
-                maxMergeAtOnce,
-                newMaxMergeAtOnce,
-                segmentsPerTier
-            );
-            maxMergeAtOnce = newMaxMergeAtOnce;
-        }
-        return maxMergeAtOnce;
-    }
-
     @SuppressForbidden(reason = "we always use an appropriate merge scheduler alongside this policy so NoMergePolic#INSTANCE is ok")
     MergePolicy getMergePolicy(boolean isTimeBasedIndex) {
         if (mergesEnabled == false) {
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/SearchServiceSingleNodeTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/SearchServiceSingleNodeTests.java
index 0cd60823a22cc..7a6e04f8a2fc2 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/SearchServiceSingleNodeTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/SearchServiceSingleNodeTests.java
@@ -2713,7 +2713,8 @@ public void testSlicingBehaviourForParallelCollection() throws Exception {
         assert String.valueOf(SEARCH_POOL_SIZE).equals(node().settings().get("thread_pool.search.size"))
             : "Unexpected thread_pool.search.size";
 
-        int numDocs = randomIntBetween(50, 100);
+        // Between 4 and 6 segments of 5 docs each.
+        int numDocs = randomIntBetween(20, 30);
         for (int i = 0; i < numDocs; i++) {
             prepareIndex("index").setId(String.valueOf(i)).setSource("field", "value").get();
             if (i % 5 == 0) {