diff --git a/pkg/config/setup/config.go b/pkg/config/setup/config.go
index 24f8d81503459..fdb1d427e9d15 100644
--- a/pkg/config/setup/config.go
+++ b/pkg/config/setup/config.go
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ const (
 	DefaultRuntimePoliciesDir = "/etc/datadog-agent/runtime-security.d"
 
 	// DefaultCompressorKind is the default compressor. Options available are 'zlib' and 'zstd'
-	DefaultCompressorKind = "zlib"
+	DefaultCompressorKind = "zstd"
 
 	// DefaultZstdCompressionLevel is the default compression level for `zstd`.
 	// Compression level 1 provides the lowest compression ratio, but uses much less RSS especially
diff --git a/pkg/serializer/internal/metrics/service_checks_test.go b/pkg/serializer/internal/metrics/service_checks_test.go
index 2a96f3d10072a..2559d7c9ed2cc 100644
--- a/pkg/serializer/internal/metrics/service_checks_test.go
+++ b/pkg/serializer/internal/metrics/service_checks_test.go
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ func TestPayloadsEmptyServiceCheck(t *testing.T) {
 
 func TestPayloadsServiceChecks(t *testing.T) {
 	config := mock.New(t)
-	config.Set("serializer_max_payload_size", 200, pkgconfigmodel.SourceAgentRuntime)
+	config.Set("serializer_max_payload_size", 250, pkgconfigmodel.SourceAgentRuntime)
 
 	serviceCheckCollection := []ServiceChecks{
 		{createServiceCheck("1"), createServiceCheck("2"), createServiceCheck("3")},
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/metrics-compression-default-zstd-c786c2d28eb51b1f.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/metrics-compression-default-zstd-c786c2d28eb51b1f.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..7d9a8653d8f0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/metrics-compression-default-zstd-c786c2d28eb51b1f.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# Each section from every release note are combined when the
+# CHANGELOG.rst is rendered. So the text needs to be worded so that
+# it does not depend on any information only available in another
+# section. This may mean repeating some details, but each section
+# must be readable independently of the other.
+#
+# Each section note must be formatted as reStructuredText.
+---
+enhancements:
+  - |
+    Metric payloads are compressed using `zstd` compression by default.
+    This can be reverted to the previous compression kind by adding
+    ``serializer_compressor_kind: zlib`` to the configuration.