diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ea79443..9352933 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ Changelog
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 * Please add an item to this CHANGELOG for any new features or bug fixes when creating a PR.
+* Increase the default `cutoff` from 7.5 Å to 9 Å, matching common practice and giving faster PME on current GPUs, since the shorter cutoff shifts too much work onto the reciprocal space grid [#209](https://github.com/OpenBioSim/somd2/pull/209).
 
 [2026.2.0](https://github.com/openbiosim/somd2/compare/2026.1.0...2026.2.0) - Sep 2026
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/src/somd2/config/_config.py b/src/somd2/config/_config.py
index b2b6598..1d45d7b 100644
--- a/src/somd2/config/_config.py
+++ b/src/somd2/config/_config.py
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ def __init__(
         barostat_frequency=25,
         integrator="langevin_middle",
         cutoff_type="pme",
-        cutoff="7.5 A",
+        cutoff="9 A",
         h_mass_factor=1.5,
         hmr=True,
         num_lambda=11,