diff --git a/src/journal/journal-file.c b/src/journal/journal-file.c
index e00a0d711d..f9ff9545dd 100644
--- a/src/journal/journal-file.c
+++ b/src/journal/journal-file.c
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
 #define COMPRESSION_SIZE_THRESHOLD (512ULL)
 
 /* This is the minimum journal file size */
-#define JOURNAL_FILE_SIZE_MIN (4ULL*1024ULL*1024ULL)           /* 4 MiB */
+#define JOURNAL_FILE_SIZE_MIN (512ULL*1024ULL)                 /* 512 KiB */
 
 /* These are the lower and upper bounds if we deduce the max_use value
  * from the file system size */