diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index 26c35cb6c8..8db5ac3442 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ The following tip changes can be tested by building VictoriaMetrics components f
 
 * BUGFIX: [VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html): fix potential panic in [multi-level cluster setup](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html#multi-level-cluster-setup) when top-level `vmselect` is configured with `-replicationFactor` bigger than 1. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/2961).
 * BUGFIX: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): properly handle custom `endpoint` value in [ec2_sd_configs](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#ec2_sd_config). It was ignored since [v1.77.0](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/CHANGELOG.html#v1770) because of a bug in the implementation of [this feature request](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/1287).
+* BUGFIX: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): allow stale responses from Consul service discovery (aka [consul_sd_configs](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#consul_sd_config)) by default in the same way as Prometheus does. This should reduce load on Consul when discovering big number of targets. Stale responses can be disabled by specifying `allow_stale: false` option in `consul_sd_config`.
 * BUGFIX: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): [dockerswarm_sd_configs](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#dockerswarm_sd_config): properly set `__meta_dockerswarm_container_label_*` labels instead of `__meta_dockerswarm_task_label_*` labels as Prometheus does. See [this issue](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/issues/9187).
 * BUGFIX: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): set `up` metric to `0` for partial scrapes in [stream parsing mode](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html#stream-parsing-mode). Previously the `up` metric was set to `1` when at least a single metric has been scraped before the error. This aligns the behaviour of `vmselect` with Prometheus.
 * BUGFIX: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): restart all the scrape jobs during [config reload](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html#configuration-update) after `global` section is changed inside `-promscrape.config`. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/2884).
diff --git a/lib/promscrape/discovery/consul/consul.go b/lib/promscrape/discovery/consul/consul.go
index 01134e6f46..c2ce8658d0 100644
--- a/lib/promscrape/discovery/consul/consul.go
+++ b/lib/promscrape/discovery/consul/consul.go
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ type SDConfig struct {
 	Tags              []string                   `yaml:"tags,omitempty"`
 	NodeMeta          map[string]string          `yaml:"node_meta,omitempty"`
 	TagSeparator      *string                    `yaml:"tag_separator,omitempty"`
-	AllowStale        bool                       `yaml:"allow_stale,omitempty"`
+	AllowStale        *bool                      `yaml:"allow_stale,omitempty"`
 	// RefreshInterval time.Duration `yaml:"refresh_interval"`
 	// refresh_interval is obtained from `-promscrape.consulSDCheckInterval` command-line option.
 }
diff --git a/lib/promscrape/discovery/consul/watch.go b/lib/promscrape/discovery/consul/watch.go
index 8162998c9a..203f8414f8 100644
--- a/lib/promscrape/discovery/consul/watch.go
+++ b/lib/promscrape/discovery/consul/watch.go
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ type serviceWatcher struct {
 // newConsulWatcher creates new watcher and starts background service discovery for Consul.
 func newConsulWatcher(client *discoveryutils.Client, sdc *SDConfig, datacenter, namespace string) *consulWatcher {
 	baseQueryArgs := "?dc=" + url.QueryEscape(datacenter)
-	if sdc.AllowStale {
+	if sdc.AllowStale == nil || *sdc.AllowStale {
 		baseQueryArgs += "&stale"
 	}
 	if namespace != "" {