diff --git a/extensions/mssql/package.json b/extensions/mssql/package.json
index 8e8fe228c1..66b7a69b68 100644
--- a/extensions/mssql/package.json
+++ b/extensions/mssql/package.json
@@ -445,7 +445,7 @@
         "mssql.enableConnectionPooling": {
           "type": "boolean",
           "description": "%mssql.enableConnectionPooling%",
-          "default": false
+          "default": true
         },
         "mssql.tableDesigner.preloadDatabaseModel": {
           "type": "boolean",
diff --git a/extensions/mssql/package.nls.json b/extensions/mssql/package.nls.json
index cab9f992ee..7ae95ee093 100644
--- a/extensions/mssql/package.nls.json
+++ b/extensions/mssql/package.nls.json
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@
 	"title.changeNotebookConnection": "Change SQL Notebook Connection",
 	"mssql.parallelMessageProcessing": "[Experimental] Whether the requests to the SQL Tools Service should be handled in parallel. This is introduced to discover the issues there might be when handling all requests in parallel. The default value is false. Azure Data Studio is required to be relaunched when the value is changed.",
 	"mssql.enableSqlAuthenticationProvider": "Enables use of the Sql Authentication Provider for 'Active Directory Interactive' authentication mode when user selects 'AzureMFA' authentication. This enables Server-side resource endpoint integration when fetching access tokens. This option is only supported for 'MSAL' Azure Authentication Library. Azure Data Studio is required to be relaunched when the value is changed.",
-	"mssql.enableConnectionPooling": "Enables connection pooling on MSSQL connections to improve overall performance of Azure Data Studio connectivity. This setting is disabled by default. Azure Data Studio is required to be relaunched when the value is changed.",
+	"mssql.enableConnectionPooling": "Enables connection pooling on MSSQL connections to improve overall performance of Azure Data Studio connectivity. This setting is enabled by default. Azure Data Studio is required to be relaunched when the value is changed.",
 	"mssql.tableDesigner.preloadDatabaseModel": "Whether to preload the database model when the database node in the object explorer is expanded. When enabled, the loading time of table designer can be reduced. Note: You might see higher than normal memory usage if you need to expand a lot of database nodes.",
 	"mssql.tableDesigner.allowDisableAndReenableDdlTriggers": "Whether to allow table designer to disable and re-enable DDL triggers during publish",
 	"mssql.objectExplorer.groupBySchema": "When enabled, the database objects in Object Explorer will be categorized by schema.",
diff --git a/extensions/mssql/src/utils.ts b/extensions/mssql/src/utils.ts
index 162ba7c202..9b7ecac989 100644
--- a/extensions/mssql/src/utils.ts
+++ b/extensions/mssql/src/utils.ts
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ export function getEnableConnectionPoolingConfig(): boolean {
 		return (azdata.env.quality === azdata.env.AppQuality.dev && setting?.globalValue === undefined && setting?.workspaceValue === undefined) ? true : config[enableConnectionPoolingConfig];
 	}
 	else {
-		return false; // disabled by default
+		return true; // enabled by default
 	}
 }