diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3ffdafbb1cba..356e16bd4d4d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ When releasing, please add the new-release-boilerplate to docs/pallas/CHANGELOG.
 * Changes:
   * The minimum NumPy version is now 1.25. NumPy 1.25 will remain the minimum
     supported version until June 2025.
+  * {func}`jax.numpy.einsum` now defaults to `optimize='auto'` rather than
+    `optimize='optimal'`. This avoids exponentially-scaling trace-time in
+    the case of many arguments ({jax-issue}`#25214`).
 
 * New Features
   * {func}`jax.numpy.fft.fftn`, {func}`jax.numpy.fft.rfftn`,
diff --git a/jax/_src/numpy/lax_numpy.py b/jax/_src/numpy/lax_numpy.py
index f232612526f4..2681cbc81283 100644
--- a/jax/_src/numpy/lax_numpy.py
+++ b/jax/_src/numpy/lax_numpy.py
@@ -9503,7 +9503,7 @@ def einsum(
     subscript: str, /,
     *operands: ArrayLike,
     out: None = None,
-    optimize: str | bool | list[tuple[int, ...]] = "optimal",
+    optimize: str | bool | list[tuple[int, ...]] = "auto",
     precision: PrecisionLike = None,
     preferred_element_type: DTypeLike | None = None,
     _dot_general: Callable[..., Array] = lax.dot_general,
@@ -9516,7 +9516,7 @@ def einsum(
     axes: Sequence[Any], /,
     *operands: ArrayLike | Sequence[Any],
     out: None = None,
-    optimize: str | bool | list[tuple[int, ...]] = "optimal",
+    optimize: str | bool | list[tuple[int, ...]] = "auto",
     precision: PrecisionLike = None,
     preferred_element_type: DTypeLike | None = None,
     _dot_general: Callable[..., Array] = lax.dot_general,
@@ -9528,7 +9528,7 @@ def einsum(
     subscripts, /,
     *operands,
     out: None = None,
-    optimize: str | bool | list[tuple[int, ...]] = "optimal",
+    optimize: str | bool | list[tuple[int, ...]] = "auto",
     precision: PrecisionLike = None,
     preferred_element_type: DTypeLike | None = None,
     _dot_general: Callable[..., Array] = lax.dot_general,
@@ -9548,10 +9548,10 @@ def einsum(
     subscripts: string containing axes names separated by commas.
     *operands: sequence of one or more arrays corresponding to the subscripts.
     optimize: specify how to optimize the order of computation. In JAX this defaults
-      to ``"optimal"`` which produces optimized expressions via the opt_einsum_
+      to ``"auto"`` which produces optimized expressions via the opt_einsum_
       package. Other options are ``True`` (same as ``"optimal"``), ``False``
       (unoptimized), or any string supported by ``opt_einsum``, which
-      includes ``"auto"``, ``"greedy"``, ``"eager"``, and others. It may also
+      includes ``"optimal"``, ``"greedy"``, ``"eager"``, and others. It may also
       be a pre-computed path (see :func:`~jax.numpy.einsum_path`).
     precision: either ``None`` (default), which means the default precision for
       the backend, a :class:`~jax.lax.Precision` enum value (``Precision.DEFAULT``,