diff --git a/swift/container/sharder.py b/swift/container/sharder.py
index 06c2b6d9db..d282d7b6da 100644
--- a/swift/container/sharder.py
+++ b/swift/container/sharder.py
@@ -287,7 +287,7 @@ class CleavingContext(object):
                     self.max_row == self.cleave_to_row))
 
 
-DEFAULT_SHARD_CONTAINER_THRESHOLD = 10000000
+DEFAULT_SHARD_CONTAINER_THRESHOLD = 1000000
 DEFAULT_SHARD_SHRINK_POINT = 25
 DEFAULT_SHARD_MERGE_POINT = 75
 
diff --git a/test/unit/container/test_sharder.py b/test/unit/container/test_sharder.py
index 353d980bbf..751b621ed5 100644
--- a/test/unit/container/test_sharder.py
+++ b/test/unit/container/test_sharder.py
@@ -135,8 +135,8 @@ class TestSharder(BaseTestSharder):
             'reclaim_age': 86400 * 7,
             'shard_shrink_point': 0.25,
             'shrink_merge_point': 0.75,
-            'shard_container_threshold': 10000000,
-            'split_size': 5000000,
+            'shard_container_threshold': 1000000,
+            'split_size': 500000,
             'cleave_batch_size': 2,
             'scanner_batch_size': 10,
             'rcache': '/var/cache/swift/container.recon',