diff --git a/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Repository.java b/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Repository.java
index d75a3e8ad433e..a02b5026c8c58 100644
--- a/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Repository.java
+++ b/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Repository.java
@@ -117,6 +117,22 @@ class S3Repository extends MeteredBlobStoreRepository {
      */
     static final ByteSizeValue MAX_FILE_SIZE_USING_MULTIPART = new ByteSizeValue(5, ByteSizeUnit.TB);
 
+    /**
+     * Maximum number of parts that can be uploaded using the Multipart Upload API.
+     * (see http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/qfacts.html)
+     */
+    static final long MAX_PARTS_NUMBER_USING_MULTIPART = 10_000;
+
+    /**
+     * Big files should be broken down into chunks taking into account S3 maximum object size and number of parts.
+     * Chunk size would be in range {@code part_size * max_number_of_parts = [50Gb, 5Tb]}, where {@code part_size = [5Mb, 5Gb]}
+     * and {@code max_number_of_parts = 10_000}
+     */
+    static final ByteSizeValue DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE = new ByteSizeValue(
+        DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE.getBytes() * MAX_PARTS_NUMBER_USING_MULTIPART,
+        ByteSizeUnit.BYTES
+    );
+
     /**
      * Minimum threshold below which the chunk is uploaded using a single request. Beyond this threshold,
      * the S3 repository will use the AWS Multipart Upload API to split the chunk into several parts, each of buffer_size length, and
@@ -135,7 +151,7 @@ class S3Repository extends MeteredBlobStoreRepository {
      */
     static final Setting<ByteSizeValue> CHUNK_SIZE_SETTING = Setting.byteSizeSetting(
         "chunk_size",
-        MAX_FILE_SIZE_USING_MULTIPART,
+        DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE,
         new ByteSizeValue(5, ByteSizeUnit.MB),
         MAX_FILE_SIZE_USING_MULTIPART
     );
diff --git a/modules/repository-s3/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3BlobStoreContainerTests.java b/modules/repository-s3/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3BlobStoreContainerTests.java
index fbbcfa475da44..b81430d635eef 100644
--- a/modules/repository-s3/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3BlobStoreContainerTests.java
+++ b/modules/repository-s3/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3BlobStoreContainerTests.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 
 import org.elasticsearch.common.blobstore.BlobPath;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.blobstore.BlobStoreException;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.ByteSizeUnit;
 import org.elasticsearch.core.Tuple;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
@@ -84,6 +85,16 @@ public void testExecuteSingleUploadBlobSizeLargerThanBufferSize() {
         assertEquals("Upload request size [2097152] can't be larger than buffer size", e.getMessage());
     }
 
+    public void testDefaultChunkPartsLimit() {
+        var settings = Settings.EMPTY;
+        var blobSize = S3Repository.CHUNK_SIZE_SETTING.getDefault(settings).getBytes();
+        var partSize = S3Repository.BUFFER_SIZE_SETTING.getDefault(settings).getBytes();
+        var parts = S3BlobContainer.numberOfMultiparts(blobSize, partSize);
+        var gotParts = parts.v1();
+        var maxParts = S3Repository.MAX_PARTS_NUMBER_USING_MULTIPART;
+        assertTrue("numbers of parts should be less-or-equal " + maxParts + ", got " + gotParts, gotParts <= maxParts);
+    }
+
     public void testExecuteSingleUpload() throws IOException {
         final String bucketName = randomAlphaOfLengthBetween(1, 10);
         final String blobName = randomAlphaOfLengthBetween(1, 10);