diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/WhitespaceTokenizerFactory.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/WhitespaceTokenizerFactory.java
index aa5acc8a985..c71747a596d 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/WhitespaceTokenizerFactory.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/WhitespaceTokenizerFactory.java
@@ -19,20 +19,26 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.index.analysis;
 
+import org.apache.lucene.analysis.TokenStream;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.Tokenizer;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.core.WhitespaceTokenizer;
+import org.apache.lucene.analysis.standard.StandardAnalyzer;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.env.Environment;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.IndexSettings;
 
 public class WhitespaceTokenizerFactory extends AbstractTokenizerFactory {
 
+    static final String MAX_TOKEN_LENGTH = "max_token_length";
+    private Integer maxTokenLength;
+
     public WhitespaceTokenizerFactory(IndexSettings indexSettings, Environment environment, String name, Settings settings) {
         super(indexSettings, name, settings);
+        maxTokenLength = settings.getAsInt(MAX_TOKEN_LENGTH, StandardAnalyzer.DEFAULT_MAX_TOKEN_LENGTH);
     }
 
     @Override
     public Tokenizer create() {
-        return new WhitespaceTokenizer();
+        return new WhitespaceTokenizer(TokenStream.DEFAULT_TOKEN_ATTRIBUTE_FACTORY, maxTokenLength);
     }
 }
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/WhitespaceTokenizerFactoryTests.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/WhitespaceTokenizerFactoryTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6dbb5e174b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/WhitespaceTokenizerFactoryTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.index.analysis;
+
+import com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting.generators.RandomStrings;
+
+import org.apache.lucene.analysis.core.WhitespaceTokenizer;
+import org.elasticsearch.Version;
+import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexMetaData;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.Index;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.IndexSettings;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.IndexSettingsModule;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Reader;
+import java.io.StringReader;
+
+import static org.apache.lucene.analysis.BaseTokenStreamTestCase.assertTokenStreamContents;
+
+public class WhitespaceTokenizerFactoryTests extends ESTestCase {
+
+    public void testSimpleWhiteSpaceTokenizer() throws IOException {
+        final Settings indexSettings = Settings.builder().put(IndexMetaData.SETTING_VERSION_CREATED, Version.CURRENT).build();
+        IndexSettings indexProperties = IndexSettingsModule.newIndexSettings(new Index("test", "_na_"), indexSettings);
+        WhitespaceTokenizer tokenizer = (WhitespaceTokenizer) new WhitespaceTokenizerFactory(indexProperties, null, "whitespace_maxlen",
+                Settings.EMPTY).create();
+
+        try (Reader reader = new StringReader("one, two, three")) {
+            tokenizer.setReader(reader);
+            assertTokenStreamContents(tokenizer, new String[] { "one,", "two,", "three" });
+        }
+    }
+
+    public void testMaxTokenLength() throws IOException {
+        final Settings indexSettings = Settings.builder().put(IndexMetaData.SETTING_VERSION_CREATED, Version.CURRENT).build();
+        IndexSettings indexProperties = IndexSettingsModule.newIndexSettings(new Index("test", "_na_"), indexSettings);
+        final Settings settings = Settings.builder().put(WhitespaceTokenizerFactory.MAX_TOKEN_LENGTH, 2).build();
+        WhitespaceTokenizer tokenizer = (WhitespaceTokenizer) new WhitespaceTokenizerFactory(indexProperties, null, "whitespace_maxlen",
+                settings).create();
+        try (Reader reader = new StringReader("one, two, three")) {
+            tokenizer.setReader(reader);
+            assertTokenStreamContents(tokenizer, new String[] { "on", "e,", "tw", "o,", "th", "re", "e" });
+        }
+
+        final Settings defaultSettings = Settings.EMPTY;
+        tokenizer = (WhitespaceTokenizer) new WhitespaceTokenizerFactory(indexProperties, null, "whitespace_maxlen", defaultSettings)
+                .create();
+        String veryLongToken = RandomStrings.randomAsciiAlphanumOfLength(random(), 256);
+        try (Reader reader = new StringReader(veryLongToken)) {
+            tokenizer.setReader(reader);
+            assertTokenStreamContents(tokenizer, new String[] { veryLongToken.substring(0, 255), veryLongToken.substring(255) });
+        }
+
+        final Settings tooLongSettings = Settings.builder().put(WhitespaceTokenizerFactory.MAX_TOKEN_LENGTH, 1024 * 1024 + 1).build();
+        IllegalArgumentException e = expectThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class,
+                () -> new WhitespaceTokenizerFactory(indexProperties, null, "whitespace_maxlen", tooLongSettings).create());
+        assertEquals("maxTokenLen must be greater than 0 and less than 1048576 passed: 1048577", e.getMessage());
+
+        final Settings negativeSettings = Settings.builder().put(WhitespaceTokenizerFactory.MAX_TOKEN_LENGTH, -1).build();
+        e = expectThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class,
+                () -> new WhitespaceTokenizerFactory(indexProperties, null, "whitespace_maxlen", negativeSettings).create());
+        assertEquals("maxTokenLen must be greater than 0 and less than 1048576 passed: -1", e.getMessage());
+    }
+}
diff --git a/docs/reference/analysis/tokenizers/whitespace-tokenizer.asciidoc b/docs/reference/analysis/tokenizers/whitespace-tokenizer.asciidoc
index 55ce590031f..149fe421c0a 100644
--- a/docs/reference/analysis/tokenizers/whitespace-tokenizer.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/analysis/tokenizers/whitespace-tokenizer.asciidoc
@@ -111,4 +111,10 @@ The above sentence would produce the following terms:
 [float]
 === Configuration
 
-The `whitespace` tokenizer is not configurable.
+The `whitespace` tokenizer accepts the following parameters:
+
+[horizontal]
+`max_token_length`::
+
+    The maximum token length. If a token is seen that exceeds this length then
+    it is split at `max_token_length` intervals. Defaults to `255`.