diff --git a/include/sys/arc.h b/include/sys/arc.h
index 6f56f732ad..75c483918c 100644
--- a/include/sys/arc.h
+++ b/include/sys/arc.h
@@ -298,6 +298,7 @@ void arc_tempreserve_clear(uint64_t reserve);
 int arc_tempreserve_space(spa_t *spa, uint64_t reserve, uint64_t txg);
 
 uint64_t arc_all_memory(void);
+uint64_t arc_default_max(uint64_t min, uint64_t allmem);
 uint64_t arc_target_bytes(void);
 void arc_init(void);
 void arc_fini(void);
diff --git a/man/man5/zfs-module-parameters.5 b/man/man5/zfs-module-parameters.5
index 3c61ac1a90..a7623ff27d 100644
--- a/man/man5/zfs-module-parameters.5
+++ b/man/man5/zfs-module-parameters.5
@@ -854,8 +854,11 @@ Default value: \fB10\fR%.
 \fBzfs_arc_max\fR (ulong)
 .ad
 .RS 12n
-Max arc size of ARC in bytes. If set to 0 then it will consume 1/2 of system
-RAM. This value must be at least 67108864 (64 megabytes).
+Max size of ARC in bytes.  If set to 0 then the max size of ARC is determined
+by the amount of system memory installed.  For Linux, 1/2 of system memory will
+be used as the limit.  For FreeBSD, the larger of all system memory - 1GB or
+5/8 of system memory will be used as the limit.  This value must be at least
+67108864 (64 megabytes).
 .sp
 This value can be changed dynamically with some caveats. It cannot be set back
 to 0 while running and reducing it below the current ARC size will not cause
diff --git a/module/os/linux/zfs/arc_os.c b/module/os/linux/zfs/arc_os.c
index 1e0cabd0a5..bff0f05179 100644
--- a/module/os/linux/zfs/arc_os.c
+++ b/module/os/linux/zfs/arc_os.c
@@ -60,6 +60,16 @@
 int64_t last_free_memory;
 free_memory_reason_t last_free_reason;
 
+/*
+ * Return a default max arc size based on the amount of physical memory.
+ */
+uint64_t
+arc_default_max(uint64_t min, uint64_t allmem)
+{
+	/* Default to 1/2 of all memory. */
+	return (MAX(allmem / 2, min));
+}
+
 #ifdef _KERNEL
 /*
  * Return maximum amount of memory that we could possibly use.  Reduced
diff --git a/module/zfs/arc.c b/module/zfs/arc.c
index c6b194183f..8a0c1a4a7e 100644
--- a/module/zfs/arc.c
+++ b/module/zfs/arc.c
@@ -7150,13 +7150,13 @@ arc_init(void)
 	arc_lowmem_init();
 #endif
 
-	/* Set max to 1/2 of all memory */
-	arc_c_max = allmem / 2;
-
-#ifdef	_KERNEL
-	/* Set min cache to 1/32 of all memory, or 32MB, whichever is more */
+	/* Set min cache to 1/32 of all memory, or 32MB, whichever is more. */
 	arc_c_min = MAX(allmem / 32, 2ULL << SPA_MAXBLOCKSHIFT);
-#else
+
+	/* How to set default max varies by platform. */
+	arc_c_max = arc_default_max(arc_c_min, allmem);
+
+#ifndef _KERNEL
 	/*
 	 * In userland, there's only the memory pressure that we artificially
 	 * create (see arc_available_memory()).  Don't let arc_c get too