diff --git a/spacy/cli/templates/quickstart_training.jinja b/spacy/cli/templates/quickstart_training.jinja
index e3ca73cfb..1937ea935 100644
--- a/spacy/cli/templates/quickstart_training.jinja
+++ b/spacy/cli/templates/quickstart_training.jinja
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ grad_factor = 1.0
 {% if "span_finder" in components -%}
 [components.span_finder]
 factory = "span_finder"
-max_length = null
+max_length = 25
 min_length = null
 scorer = {"@scorers":"spacy.span_finder_scorer.v1"}
 spans_key = "sc"
@@ -419,7 +419,7 @@ width = ${components.tok2vec.model.encode.width}
 {% if "span_finder" in components %}
 [components.span_finder]
 factory = "span_finder"
-max_length = null
+max_length = 25
 min_length = null
 scorer = {"@scorers":"spacy.span_finder_scorer.v1"}
 spans_key = "sc"
diff --git a/spacy/pipeline/span_finder.py b/spacy/pipeline/span_finder.py
index 53f5c55be..a12d52911 100644
--- a/spacy/pipeline/span_finder.py
+++ b/spacy/pipeline/span_finder.py
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ DEFAULT_SPAN_FINDER_MODEL = Config().from_str(span_finder_default_config)["model
         "threshold": 0.5,
         "model": DEFAULT_SPAN_FINDER_MODEL,
         "spans_key": DEFAULT_SPANS_KEY,
-        "max_length": None,
+        "max_length": 25,
         "min_length": None,
         "scorer": {"@scorers": "spacy.span_finder_scorer.v1"},
     },