diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8a7629afdf6..aff6d531518 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 - Process logs in all non-proxy Relays. ([#4973](https://github.com/getsentry/relay/pull/4973))
 - Add support for pre-hashed signatures. ([#5012](https://github.com/getsentry/relay/pull/5012))
 - Add producer_name tag, and more rdkafka stats. ([#5031](https://github.com/getsentry/relay/pull/5031))
+- Change the default configuration to produce to `snuba-items`. ([#5055](https://github.com/getsentry/relay/pull/5055))
 
 ## 25.7.0
 
diff --git a/relay-config/src/config.rs b/relay-config/src/config.rs
index d26adecc33e..80ac37a608a 100644
--- a/relay-config/src/config.rs
+++ b/relay-config/src/config.rs
@@ -1223,8 +1223,8 @@ pub struct SpanProducers {
 impl Default for SpanProducers {
     fn default() -> Self {
         Self {
-            produce_json: true,
-            produce_protobuf: false,
+            produce_json: false,
+            produce_protobuf: true,
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/tests/integration/fixtures/processing.py b/tests/integration/fixtures/processing.py
index 06dc41d0e5d..3cac7a46ee6 100644
--- a/tests/integration/fixtures/processing.py
+++ b/tests/integration/fixtures/processing.py
@@ -78,6 +78,12 @@ def inner(options=None):
                 f"relay-test-relayconfig-{uuid.uuid4()}"
             )
 
+        if processing.get("span_producers") is None:
+            processing["span_producers"] = {
+                "produce_json": True,
+                "produce_protobuf": False,
+            }
+
         return options
 
     return inner
diff --git a/tests/integration/test_spans.py b/tests/integration/test_spans.py
index f7919d2d154..37eec19794a 100644
--- a/tests/integration/test_spans.py
+++ b/tests/integration/test_spans.py
@@ -20,9 +20,16 @@
 from .consts import (
     TRANSACTION_EXTRACT_MIN_SUPPORTED_VERSION,
 )
-from .test_metrics import TEST_CONFIG
 from .test_store import make_transaction
 
+TEST_CONFIG = {
+    "aggregator": {
+        "bucket_interval": 1,
+        "initial_delay": 0,
+        "shift_key": "none",
+    }
+}
+
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("performance_issues_spans", [False, True])
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("discard_transaction", [False, True])