diff --git a/emacs/mu4e-vars.el b/emacs/mu4e-vars.el
index 1e56fcbf..20428259 100644
--- a/emacs/mu4e-vars.el
+++ b/emacs/mu4e-vars.el
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ in :from-or-to headers. By default, match nothing.")
   "Date format to use in the message view, in the format of
   `format-time-string'.")
 
-(defvar mu4e-search-results-limit 1000
+(defvar mu4e-search-results-limit 500
   "Maximum number of search results (or -1 for unlimited). Since
 limiting search results speeds up searches significantly, it's
 useful to limit this. Note, to ignore the limit, use a prefix