diff --git a/meta/conf/bitbake.conf b/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
index 02bbf0e7a52..b8b321dd1b7 100644
--- a/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
+++ b/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
@@ -881,8 +881,8 @@ XZ_DEFAULTS[vardepsexclude] += "XZ_MEMLIMIT XZ_THREADS"
 ZSTD_THREADS ?= "${@oe.utils.cpu_count(at_least=2)}"
 ZSTD_THREADS[vardepvalue] = "1"
 
-ZSTD_COMPRESSION_LEVEL ?= "-3"
-ZSTD_DEFAULTS ?= "--threads=${ZSTD_THREADS} ${ZSTD_COMPRESSION_LEVEL}"
+ZSTD_COMPRESSION_LEVEL ?= "3"
+ZSTD_DEFAULTS ?= "--threads=${ZSTD_THREADS} -${ZSTD_COMPRESSION_LEVEL}"
 ZSTD_DEFAULTS[vardepsexclude] = "ZSTD_THREADS"
 
 # Limit the number of threads that OpenMP libraries will use. Otherwise they