diff --git a/docs/RUGNUX.md b/docs/RUGNUX.md
index 0a6fe4df..c8baafa1 100644
--- a/docs/RUGNUX.md
+++ b/docs/RUGNUX.md
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ Spot finding:
 | `--spot-high-resolution <num>` | High-resolution limit for spot finding, Å. Omitted (or 0): no resolution clipping — spot finding extends as far as the detector reaches, for rotation data as well as stills |
 | `--spot-low-resolution <num>` | Low-resolution limit for spot finding, Å (default: 50; lower it, e.g. 24, to exclude the direct-beam halo on weak serial data) |
 | `--min-pix-per-spot <num>` | Minimum connected strong pixels per spot. **If omitted, min-pix is chosen per image** (stills indexing): the frame is indexed at min-pix 3/2/1 and the one maximising indexed-spot count × indexed fraction is kept. Give an explicit value to force a fixed min-pix instead. |
-| `--max-spots <num>` | Maximum spot count (default: 250) |
+| `--max-spots <num>` | Maximum spots kept per image (the strongest ones) and handed to indexing (default: 1000) |
 | `--detect-ice-rings[=on\|off]` | Flag ice-ring spots (de-prioritised in indexing) and exclude ice-ring reflections from scaling/merging; overrides the dataset/master-file setting (default: use the dataset value) |
 
 Azimuthal integration (the radial profile behind the per-image ice-ring score):
diff --git a/rugnux/rugnux_cli.cpp b/rugnux/rugnux_cli.cpp
index 71c3a34b..65417482 100644
--- a/rugnux/rugnux_cli.cpp
+++ b/rugnux/rugnux_cli.cpp
@@ -38,6 +38,14 @@
 #include "RugnuxDefaults.h"
 #include "ModelValidation.h"
 
+// Spots kept per image (the strongest ones) and handed to indexing. Offline reprocessing is not
+// bound by the online spot budget, so this is rugnux's own default rather than the 250 the
+// DatasetSettings constructor uses for the detector. Measured over the 37-crystal rotation battery,
+// lifting it to 1000 leaves low-resolution R_meas better or equal on every crystal (16 better, 0
+// worse, the rest untouched because their frames never reach the cap), with R_meas 14/4 and ISa 14/6
+// in its favour and no measurable cost in wall clock. It is also what jfjoch_viewer already sends.
+constexpr int64_t RUGNUX_MAX_SPOT_COUNT = 1000;
+
 // Default rot3d per-frame scale-G smoothing range (XDS DELPHI-like), in degrees of rotation.
 constexpr double SMOOTH_G_DEFAULT_DEG = 5.0;
 
@@ -69,7 +77,7 @@ void print_usage() {
     std::cout << "   --spot-false-pixels <num>        Adaptive detection operating point: expected noise pixels tolerated per frame (default: 100; implies --adaptive-spots)" << std::endl;
     std::cout << "   --spot-high-resolution <num>     High resolution limit for spot finding. If omitted (or 0), spot finding is not clipped in resolution and extends as far as the detector reaches" << std::endl;
     std::cout << "   --spot-low-resolution <num>      Low resolution limit for spot finding, in A (default: 50; lower it, e.g. 24, to exclude the direct-beam halo on weakly-diffracting serial data)" << std::endl;
-    std::cout << "   --max-spots <num>                Max spot count (default: 250)" << std::endl;
+    std::cout << "   --max-spots <num>                Max spot count per image, the strongest ones, handed to indexing (default: 1000)" << std::endl;
     std::cout << "   --detect-ice-rings[=on|off]      Flag ice-ring spots (de-prioritised in indexing) and exclude ice-ring reflections from scaling/merging; overrides the dataset/master-file setting (default: use dataset value)" << std::endl;
     std::cout << std::endl;
 
@@ -1442,10 +1450,9 @@ static int RunRugnux(int argc, char **argv) {
             refine_geometry = 200;
     }
 
-    if (max_spot_count_override.has_value()) {
-        experiment.MaxSpotCount(max_spot_count_override.value());
+    experiment.MaxSpotCount(max_spot_count_override.value_or(RUGNUX_MAX_SPOT_COUNT));
+    if (max_spot_count_override.has_value())
         logger.Info("Max spot count overridden to {}", max_spot_count_override.value());
-    }
 
     // X-ray bandwidth: CLI overrides the value carried in the dataset; otherwise
     // keep whatever the dataset provided (0 / none -> monochromatic).