diff --git a/docs/reference/mapping/types/keyword.asciidoc b/docs/reference/mapping/types/keyword.asciidoc
index 821fb0557442f..fdefbd5dcb608 100644
--- a/docs/reference/mapping/types/keyword.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/mapping/types/keyword.asciidoc
@@ -62,8 +62,8 @@ The following parameters are accepted by `keyword` fields:
 
 <<ignore-above,`ignore_above`>>::
 
-    Do not index any string longer than this value.  Defaults to
-    `2147483647` so that all values would be accepted.
+    Do not index any string longer than this value, but store it.  Defaults to
+    `256`.
 
 <<mapping-index,`index`>>::