diff --git a/src/core/server/execution_context/execution_context_config.ts b/src/core/server/execution_context/execution_context_config.ts
index af6e7253433f7..0f63952d5cfa9 100644
--- a/src/core/server/execution_context/execution_context_config.ts
+++ b/src/core/server/execution_context/execution_context_config.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import { TypeOf, schema } from '@kbn/config-schema';
 import { ServiceConfigDescriptor } from '../internal_types';
 
 const configSchema = schema.object({
-  enabled: schema.boolean({ defaultValue: true }),
+  enabled: schema.boolean({ defaultValue: false }),
 });
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/core/server/execution_context/integration_tests/tracing.test.ts b/src/core/server/execution_context/integration_tests/tracing.test.ts
index 5451ee222d776..f07546d44e956 100644
--- a/src/core/server/execution_context/integration_tests/tracing.test.ts
+++ b/src/core/server/execution_context/integration_tests/tracing.test.ts
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ describe('trace', () => {
           allowFromAnyIp: true,
         },
       },
+      execution_context: {
+        enabled: true,
+      },
     });
     await root.preboot();
   }, 30000);
diff --git a/test/plugin_functional/config.ts b/test/plugin_functional/config.ts
index 3791e663fb68c..e371518ce7fc7 100644
--- a/test/plugin_functional/config.ts
+++ b/test/plugin_functional/config.ts
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ export default async function ({ readConfigFile }: FtrConfigProviderContext) {
         '--corePluginDeprecations.noLongerUsed=still_using',
         // for testing set buffer duration to 0 to immediately flush counters into saved objects.
         '--usageCollection.usageCounters.bufferDuration=0',
+        '--execution_context.enabled=true',
         ...plugins.map(
           (pluginDir) => `--plugin-path=${path.resolve(__dirname, 'plugins', pluginDir)}`
         ),