diff --git a/services/horizon/CHANGELOG.md b/services/horizon/CHANGELOG.md
index d49fc4f489..43b13be3dc 100644
--- a/services/horizon/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/services/horizon/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@ file. This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
 
 ## Unreleased
+### Changes
+### Breaking Changes
+- Modify the default value of `--captive-core-use-db` to true ([4856](https://github.com/stellar/go/issues/4856))
+  - This updates the default behavior of captive core to start in on-disk mode.
+  - To continue using the previous in-memory mode, explicitly set the `--captive-core-use-db` flag to false
 
 ## 2.24.1
 
diff --git a/services/horizon/internal/flags.go b/services/horizon/internal/flags.go
index e13ff923e6..c2e6cbff4c 100644
--- a/services/horizon/internal/flags.go
+++ b/services/horizon/internal/flags.go
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ func Flags() (*Config, support.ConfigOptions) {
 		&support.ConfigOption{
 			Name:        CaptiveCoreConfigUseDB,
 			OptType:     types.Bool,
-			FlagDefault: false,
+			FlagDefault: true,
 			Required:    false,
 			Usage: `when enabled, Horizon ingestion will instruct the captive
 			              core invocation to use an external db url for ledger states rather than in memory(RAM).\n 
@@ -736,9 +736,6 @@ func ApplyFlags(config *Config, flags support.ConfigOptions, options ApplyOption
 		if config.StellarCoreDatabaseURL != "" {
 			return fmt.Errorf("Invalid config: --%s passed but --ingest not set. ", StellarCoreDBURLFlagName)
 		}
-		if config.CaptiveCoreConfigUseDB {
-			return fmt.Errorf("Invalid config: --%s has been set, but --ingest not set. ", CaptiveCoreConfigUseDB)
-		}
 	}
 
 	// Configure log file