diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 2021a23501e..b799c19f3bf 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,21 @@
 systemd System and Service Manager
 
+CHANGES WITH 238 in spe:
+
+        * The MemoryAccounting= unit property now defaults to on. After
+          discussions with the upstream control group maintainers we learnt
+          that the negative impact of cgroup memory accounting on current
+          kernels is finally relatively minimal, so that it should be safe to
+          enable this by default without affecting system performance too
+          much. Besides memory accounting only tasks accounting is turned on by
+          default, all other forms of resource accounting (CPU, IO, IP) remain
+          off for now, because it's not clear yet that their impact is small
+          enough to move from opt-in to opt-out for them, too. We recommend
+          downstreams to leave memory accounting on by default, however in some
+          situations it might be wise to revert this change of defaults, in
+          particular on very resource constrained systems or when support for
+          old kernels is a necessity.
+
 CHANGES WITH 237:
 
         * Some keyboards come with a zoom see-saw or rocker which until now got
diff --git a/man/systemd-system.conf.xml b/man/systemd-system.conf.xml
index 08f6c91901c..d875a3c46fc 100644
--- a/man/systemd-system.conf.xml
+++ b/man/systemd-system.conf.xml
@@ -338,8 +338,8 @@
         <varname>CPUAccounting=</varname>, <varname>BlockIOAccounting=</varname>, <varname>MemoryAccounting=</varname>,
         <varname>TasksAccounting=</varname> and <varname>IPAccounting=</varname>. See
         <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
-        for details on the per-unit settings. <varname>DefaultTasksAccounting=</varname> defaults to on, the other
-        four settings to off.</para></listitem>
+        for details on the per-unit settings. <varname>DefaultTasksAccounting=</varname> and
+        <varname>DefaultMemoryAccounting=</varname> default to on, the other three settings to off.</para></listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
       <varlistentry>
diff --git a/src/core/main.c b/src/core/main.c
index 56200a8fad3..f518656af33 100644
--- a/src/core/main.c
+++ b/src/core/main.c
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ static bool arg_default_cpu_accounting = false;
 static bool arg_default_io_accounting = false;
 static bool arg_default_ip_accounting = false;
 static bool arg_default_blockio_accounting = false;
-static bool arg_default_memory_accounting = false;
+static bool arg_default_memory_accounting = true;
 static bool arg_default_tasks_accounting = true;
 static uint64_t arg_default_tasks_max = UINT64_MAX;
 static sd_id128_t arg_machine_id = {};
diff --git a/src/core/manager.c b/src/core/manager.c
index 5021e00b870..27b041c6d27 100644
--- a/src/core/manager.c
+++ b/src/core/manager.c
@@ -673,6 +673,7 @@ int manager_new(UnitFileScope scope, unsigned test_run_flags, Manager **_m) {
         m->unit_file_scope = scope;
         m->exit_code = _MANAGER_EXIT_CODE_INVALID;
         m->default_timer_accuracy_usec = USEC_PER_MINUTE;
+        m->default_memory_accounting = true;
         m->default_tasks_accounting = true;
         m->default_tasks_max = UINT64_MAX;
         m->default_timeout_start_usec = DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_USEC;
diff --git a/src/core/system.conf b/src/core/system.conf
index 6b86eac33db..51a6e83ecf1 100644
--- a/src/core/system.conf
+++ b/src/core/system.conf
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@
 #DefaultIOAccounting=no
 #DefaultIPAccounting=no
 #DefaultBlockIOAccounting=no
-#DefaultMemoryAccounting=no
+#DefaultMemoryAccounting=yes
 #DefaultTasksAccounting=yes
 #DefaultTasksMax=15%
 #DefaultLimitCPU=