diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index 7b5bd17..44febeb 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -13,9 +13,9 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-# If ``repo_nginx_threads`` is unset the system will use half the number of available VCPUS to
-# compute the number of api workers to use.
-# repo_nginx_threads: 16
+## Cap the maximum number of threads / workers when a user value is unspecified.
+repo_nginx_threads_max: 16
+repo_nginx_threads: "{{ [[ansible_processor_vcpus|default(2) // 2, 1] | max, repo_nginx_threads_max] | min }}"
 
 ## APT Cache Options
 cache_timeout: 600
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/capping_repo_nginx_workers-ddbc355855f8fe43.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/capping_repo_nginx_workers-ddbc355855f8fe43.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a94146
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/capping_repo_nginx_workers-ddbc355855f8fe43.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+features:
+  - Capping the default value for the variable ``repo_nginx_workers`` to
+    16 when the user doesn't configure this variable. Default value is half
+    the number of vCPUs available on the machine with a capping value of 16.
diff --git a/templates/nginx.conf.j2 b/templates/nginx.conf.j2
index 7305277..91092e1 100644
--- a/templates/nginx.conf.j2
+++ b/templates/nginx.conf.j2
@@ -1,10 +1,7 @@
 user {{ repo_service_user_name }} {{ repo_service_group_name }};
 pid {{ repo_nginx_pid }};
 
-{% set _api_threads = ansible_processor_vcpus|default(2) // 2 %}
-{% set api_threads = _api_threads if _api_threads > 0 else 1 %}
-
-worker_processes {{ repo_nginx_threads | default(api_threads) }};
+worker_processes {{ repo_nginx_threads }};
 
 events {
     worker_connections {{ repo_worker_connections }};