diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/DatafeedConfig.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/DatafeedConfig.java
index e6836e2f8a2..cc63528649e 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/DatafeedConfig.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/DatafeedConfig.java
@@ -212,7 +212,11 @@ public class DatafeedConfig extends AbstractDiffable<DatafeedConfig> implements
      * The method expects a valid top level aggregation to exist.
      */
     public long getHistogramIntervalMillis() {
-        AggregationBuilder topLevelAgg = getTopLevelAgg();
+        return getHistogramIntervalMillis(aggregations);
+    }
+
+    private static long getHistogramIntervalMillis(AggregatorFactories.Builder aggregations) {
+        AggregationBuilder topLevelAgg = getTopLevelAgg(aggregations);
         if (topLevelAgg == null) {
             throw new IllegalStateException("No aggregations exist");
         }
@@ -225,7 +229,7 @@ public class DatafeedConfig extends AbstractDiffable<DatafeedConfig> implements
         }
     }
 
-    private AggregationBuilder getTopLevelAgg() {
+    private static AggregationBuilder getTopLevelAgg(AggregatorFactories.Builder aggregations) {
         if (aggregations == null || aggregations.getAggregatorFactories().isEmpty()) {
             return null;
         }
@@ -420,6 +424,7 @@ public class DatafeedConfig extends AbstractDiffable<DatafeedConfig> implements
 
         private static final int DEFAULT_SCROLL_SIZE = 1000;
         private static final TimeValue DEFAULT_QUERY_DELAY = TimeValue.timeValueMinutes(1);
+        private static final int DEFAULT_AGGREGATION_CHUNKING_BUCKETS = 1000;
 
         private String id;
         private String jobId;
@@ -531,6 +536,7 @@ public class DatafeedConfig extends AbstractDiffable<DatafeedConfig> implements
                 throw invalidOptionValue(TYPES.getPreferredName(), types);
             }
             validateAggregations();
+            setDefaultChunkingConfig();
             return new DatafeedConfig(id, jobId, queryDelay, frequency, indexes, types, query, aggregations, scriptFields, scrollSize,
                     source, chunkingConfig);
         }
@@ -560,6 +566,18 @@ public class DatafeedConfig extends AbstractDiffable<DatafeedConfig> implements
             }
         }
 
+        private void setDefaultChunkingConfig() {
+            if (chunkingConfig == null) {
+                if (aggregations == null) {
+                    chunkingConfig = ChunkingConfig.newAuto();
+                } else {
+                    long histogramIntervalMillis = getHistogramIntervalMillis(aggregations);
+                    chunkingConfig = ChunkingConfig.newManual(TimeValue.timeValueMillis(
+                            DEFAULT_AGGREGATION_CHUNKING_BUCKETS * histogramIntervalMillis));
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
         private static ElasticsearchException invalidOptionValue(String fieldName, Object value) {
             String msg = Messages.getMessage(Messages.DATAFEED_CONFIG_INVALID_OPTION_VALUE, fieldName, value);
             throw new IllegalArgumentException(msg);
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/DataExtractorFactory.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/DataExtractorFactory.java
index dd4849df6e6..79429c64d94 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/DataExtractorFactory.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/DataExtractorFactory.java
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.datafeed.extractor;
 
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Client;
-import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.datafeed.ChunkingConfig;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.datafeed.DatafeedConfig;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.datafeed.extractor.aggregation.AggregationDataExtractorFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.datafeed.extractor.chunked.ChunkedDataExtractorFactory;
@@ -23,12 +22,7 @@ public interface DataExtractorFactory {
         boolean isScrollSearch = datafeedConfig.hasAggregations() == false;
         DataExtractorFactory dataExtractorFactory = isScrollSearch ? new ScrollDataExtractorFactory(client, datafeedConfig, job)
                 : new AggregationDataExtractorFactory(client, datafeedConfig, job);
-        ChunkingConfig chunkingConfig = datafeedConfig.getChunkingConfig();
-        if (chunkingConfig == null) {
-            chunkingConfig = isScrollSearch ? ChunkingConfig.newAuto() : ChunkingConfig.newOff();
-        }
-
-        return chunkingConfig.isEnabled() ? new ChunkedDataExtractorFactory(client, datafeedConfig, job, dataExtractorFactory)
-                : dataExtractorFactory;
+        return datafeedConfig.getChunkingConfig().isEnabled() ? new ChunkedDataExtractorFactory(
+                client, datafeedConfig, job, dataExtractorFactory) : dataExtractorFactory;
     }
 }
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/chunked/ChunkedDataExtractorFactory.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/chunked/ChunkedDataExtractorFactory.java
index 20417edb22d..17208b201b3 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/chunked/ChunkedDataExtractorFactory.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/chunked/ChunkedDataExtractorFactory.java
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ public class ChunkedDataExtractorFactory implements DataExtractorFactory {
                 datafeedConfig.getScrollSize(),
                 start,
                 end,
-                datafeedConfig.getChunkingConfig() == null ? null : datafeedConfig.getChunkingConfig().getTimeSpan());
+                datafeedConfig.getChunkingConfig().getTimeSpan());
         return new ChunkedDataExtractor(client, dataExtractorFactory, dataExtractorContext);
     }
 }
diff --git a/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/DatafeedConfigTests.java b/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/DatafeedConfigTests.java
index edcec740638..137a3763336 100644
--- a/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/DatafeedConfigTests.java
+++ b/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/DatafeedConfigTests.java
@@ -292,6 +292,20 @@ public class DatafeedConfigTests extends AbstractSerializingTestCase<DatafeedCon
         assertThat(e.getMessage(), containsString("When specifying a date_histogram calendar interval [8d]"));
     }
 
+    public void testDefaultChunkingConfig_GivenAggregations() {
+        assertThat(createDatafeedWithDateHistogram("1s").getChunkingConfig(),
+                equalTo(ChunkingConfig.newManual(TimeValue.timeValueSeconds(1000))));
+        assertThat(createDatafeedWithDateHistogram("2h").getChunkingConfig(),
+                equalTo(ChunkingConfig.newManual(TimeValue.timeValueHours(2000))));
+    }
+
+    public void testChunkingConfig_GivenExplicitSetting() {
+        DatafeedConfig.Builder builder = new DatafeedConfig.Builder(createDatafeedWithDateHistogram("30s"));
+        builder.setChunkingConfig(ChunkingConfig.newAuto());
+
+        assertThat(builder.build().getChunkingConfig(), equalTo(ChunkingConfig.newAuto()));
+    }
+
     public static String randomValidDatafeedId() {
         CodepointSetGenerator generator =  new CodepointSetGenerator("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz".toCharArray());
         return generator.ofCodePointsLength(random(), 10, 10);
diff --git a/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/DataExtractorFactoryTests.java b/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/DataExtractorFactoryTests.java
index a85ef7f8fc5..a46eae1da5b 100644
--- a/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/DataExtractorFactoryTests.java
+++ b/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/datafeed/extractor/DataExtractorFactoryTests.java
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ public class DataExtractorFactoryTests extends ESTestCase {
         assertThat(dataExtractorFactory, instanceOf(ScrollDataExtractorFactory.class));
     }
 
-    public void testCreateDataExtractorFactoryGivenAggregation() {
+    public void testCreateDataExtractorFactoryGivenDefaultAggregation() {
         DataDescription.Builder dataDescription = new DataDescription.Builder();
         dataDescription.setTimeField("time");
         Job.Builder jobBuilder = DatafeedManagerTests.createDatafeedJob();
@@ -86,6 +86,22 @@ public class DataExtractorFactoryTests extends ESTestCase {
         DataExtractorFactory dataExtractorFactory =
                 DataExtractorFactory.create(client, datafeedConfig.build(), jobBuilder.build(new Date()));
 
+        assertThat(dataExtractorFactory, instanceOf(ChunkedDataExtractorFactory.class));
+    }
+
+    public void testCreateDataExtractorFactoryGivenAggregationWithOffChunk() {
+        DataDescription.Builder dataDescription = new DataDescription.Builder();
+        dataDescription.setTimeField("time");
+        Job.Builder jobBuilder = DatafeedManagerTests.createDatafeedJob();
+        jobBuilder.setDataDescription(dataDescription);
+        DatafeedConfig.Builder datafeedConfig = DatafeedManagerTests.createDatafeedConfig("datafeed1", "foo");
+        datafeedConfig.setChunkingConfig(ChunkingConfig.newOff());
+        datafeedConfig.setAggregations(AggregatorFactories.builder().addAggregator(
+                AggregationBuilders.histogram("time").interval(300000)));
+
+        DataExtractorFactory dataExtractorFactory =
+                DataExtractorFactory.create(client, datafeedConfig.build(), jobBuilder.build(new Date()));
+
         assertThat(dataExtractorFactory, instanceOf(AggregationDataExtractorFactory.class));
     }
 
diff --git a/plugin/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ml/datafeeds_crud.yaml b/plugin/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ml/datafeeds_crud.yaml
index a5a20a699a0..4901f8cc7e2 100644
--- a/plugin/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ml/datafeeds_crud.yaml
+++ b/plugin/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ml/datafeeds_crud.yaml
@@ -70,6 +70,12 @@ setup:
             "types":["type-bar"]
           }
   - match: { datafeed_id: "test-datafeed-1" }
+  - match: { job_id: "job-1" }
+  - match: { indexes: ["index-foo"] }
+  - match: { types: ["type-bar"] }
+  - match: { scroll_size: 1000 }
+  - is_true: query.match_all
+  - match: { chunking_config: { mode: "auto" }}
 
 ---
 "Test put datafeed whose id is already taken":