diff --git a/plugin/storage/es/options.go b/plugin/storage/es/options.go
index 06da56a3d8f5..9dfb34f6c642 100644
--- a/plugin/storage/es/options.go
+++ b/plugin/storage/es/options.go
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ package es
 
 import (
 	"flag"
-	"math"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
@@ -36,7 +35,6 @@ const (
 	suffixTokenPath           = ".token-file"
 	suffixServerURLs          = ".server-urls"
 	suffixMaxSpanAge          = ".max-span-age"
-	suffixMaxNumSpans         = ".max-num-spans" // deprecated
 	suffixNumShards           = ".num-shards"
 	suffixNumReplicas         = ".num-replicas"
 	suffixBulkSize            = ".bulk.size"
@@ -176,12 +174,6 @@ func addFlags(flagSet *flag.FlagSet, nsConfig *namespaceConfig) {
 		nsConfig.namespace+suffixMaxSpanAge,
 		nsConfig.MaxSpanAge,
 		"The maximum lookback for spans in Elasticsearch")
-	flagSet.Int(
-		nsConfig.namespace+suffixMaxNumSpans,
-		nsConfig.MaxDocCount,
-		"(deprecated, will be removed in release v1.21.0. Please use es.max-doc-count). "+
-			"The maximum number of spans to fetch at a time per query in Elasticsearch. "+
-			"The lesser of es.max-num-spans and es.max-doc-count will be used if both are set.")
 	flagSet.Int64(
 		nsConfig.namespace+suffixNumShards,
 		nsConfig.NumShards,
@@ -292,11 +284,6 @@ func initFromViper(cfg *namespaceConfig, v *viper.Viper) {
 
 	cfg.MaxDocCount = v.GetInt(cfg.namespace + suffixMaxDocCount)
 
-	if v.IsSet(cfg.namespace + suffixMaxNumSpans) {
-		maxNumSpans := v.GetInt(cfg.namespace + suffixMaxNumSpans)
-		cfg.MaxDocCount = int(math.Min(float64(maxNumSpans), float64(cfg.MaxDocCount)))
-	}
-
 	// TODO: Need to figure out a better way for do this.
 	cfg.AllowTokenFromContext = v.GetBool(spanstore.StoragePropagationKey)
 	cfg.TLS = cfg.getTLSFlagsConfig().InitFromViper(v)
diff --git a/plugin/storage/es/options_test.go b/plugin/storage/es/options_test.go
index 65ac35e405a9..c5d6eb73f54a 100644
--- a/plugin/storage/es/options_test.go
+++ b/plugin/storage/es/options_test.go
@@ -103,11 +103,7 @@ func TestMaxDocCount(t *testing.T) {
 		wantMaxDocCount int
 	}{
 		{"neither defined", []string{}, 10_000},
-		{"max-num-spans only", []string{"--es.max-num-spans=1000"}, 1000},
 		{"max-doc-count only", []string{"--es.max-doc-count=1000"}, 1000},
-		{"max-num-spans == max-doc-count", []string{"--es.max-num-spans=1000", "--es.max-doc-count=1000"}, 1000},
-		{"max-num-spans < max-doc-count", []string{"--es.max-num-spans=999", "--es.max-doc-count=1000"}, 999},
-		{"max-num-spans > max-doc-count", []string{"--es.max-num-spans=1000", "--es.max-doc-count=999"}, 999},
 	}
 	for _, tc := range testCases {
 		t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) {