diff --git a/spring-kafka-docs/src/main/antora/modules/ROOT/pages/retrytopic/topic-naming.adoc b/spring-kafka-docs/src/main/antora/modules/ROOT/pages/retrytopic/topic-naming.adoc
index 679dd7e55b..94ab48bc9a 100644
--- a/spring-kafka-docs/src/main/antora/modules/ROOT/pages/retrytopic/topic-naming.adoc
+++ b/spring-kafka-docs/src/main/antora/modules/ROOT/pages/retrytopic/topic-naming.adoc
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ Examples:
 
 "my-other-topic" -> "my-topic-myRetrySuffix-1000", "my-topic-myRetrySuffix-2000", ..., "my-topic-myDltSuffix"
 
-NOTE: The default behavior is to create separate retry topics for each attempt, appended with an index value: retry-0, retry-1, ..., retry-n.
-Therefore, by default the number of retry topics is the configured `maxAttempts` minus 1.
+NOTE: Starting with version 4.1, the default behavior is to reuse a single retry topic for the same delay intervals.
+To create separate retry topics for each attempt, set `sameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy` to `MULTIPLE_TOPICS`.
 
 You can xref:retrytopic/topic-naming.adoc#retry-topics-and-dlt-suffixes[configure the suffixes], choose whether to append xref:retrytopic/topic-naming.adoc#append-index-or-delay[the attempt index or delay], use a xref:retrytopic/topic-naming.adoc#single-topic-fixed-delay[single retry topic when using fixed backoff], and use a xref:retrytopic/topic-naming.adoc#single-topic-maxinterval-delay[single retry topic for the attempts with the maxInterval] when using exponential backoffs.
 
@@ -99,7 +99,8 @@ public RetryTopicConfiguration myRetryTopic(KafkaTemplate<String, MyPojo> templa
 }
 ----
 
-NOTE: The default behavior is creating separate retry topics for each attempt, appended with their index values: retry-0, retry-1, ...
+NOTE: Starting with version 4.1, the default behavior is to use a single topic for fixed delay retries.
+To use multiple topics, set `sameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy` to `MULTIPLE_TOPICS`.
 
 
 [[single-topic-maxinterval-delay]]
diff --git a/spring-kafka-docs/src/main/antora/modules/ROOT/pages/whats-new.adoc b/spring-kafka-docs/src/main/antora/modules/ROOT/pages/whats-new.adoc
index 24f0d23796..13ce51b172 100644
--- a/spring-kafka-docs/src/main/antora/modules/ROOT/pages/whats-new.adoc
+++ b/spring-kafka-docs/src/main/antora/modules/ROOT/pages/whats-new.adoc
@@ -30,3 +30,9 @@ You can set a custom recoverer on the factory or container.
 
 `ShareAcknowledgment` now supports `renew()` to extend the acquisition lock when processing exceeds the broker's lock duration (KIP-1222, Kafka 4.2).
 See xref:kafka/kafka-queues.adoc#share-acknowledgment-api[ShareAcknowledgment API] in the Kafka Queues documentation for details.
+
+[[x41-retry-topic-builder-default]]
+=== `RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder` Default Strategy Change
+
+The default value of `sameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy` in `RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder` has been changed from `MULTIPLE_TOPICS` to `SINGLE_TOPIC` to align with the `@RetryableTopic` annotation default.
+See xref:retrytopic/topic-naming.adoc[Topic Naming] for more information.
diff --git a/spring-kafka/src/main/java/org/springframework/kafka/retrytopic/RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder.java b/spring-kafka/src/main/java/org/springframework/kafka/retrytopic/RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder.java
index 74af5a4db1..03bf47d838 100644
--- a/spring-kafka/src/main/java/org/springframework/kafka/retrytopic/RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder.java
+++ b/spring-kafka/src/main/java/org/springframework/kafka/retrytopic/RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder.java
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
  * @author Adrian Chlebosz
  * @author Wang Zhiyang
  * @author Stephane Nicoll
+ * @author Heejin Jeon
  *
  * @since 2.7
  *
@@ -93,7 +94,7 @@ public class RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder {
 
 	private TopicSuffixingStrategy topicSuffixingStrategy = TopicSuffixingStrategy.SUFFIX_WITH_DELAY_VALUE;
 
-	private SameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy sameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy = SameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy.MULTIPLE_TOPICS;
+	private SameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy sameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy = SameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy.SINGLE_TOPIC;
 
 	@Nullable
 	private Boolean autoStartDltHandler;
diff --git a/spring-kafka/src/test/java/org/springframework/kafka/retrytopic/RetryTopicConfigurationBuilderTests.java b/spring-kafka/src/test/java/org/springframework/kafka/retrytopic/RetryTopicConfigurationBuilderTests.java
index ed93b698ba..d6da216032 100644
--- a/spring-kafka/src/test/java/org/springframework/kafka/retrytopic/RetryTopicConfigurationBuilderTests.java
+++ b/spring-kafka/src/test/java/org/springframework/kafka/retrytopic/RetryTopicConfigurationBuilderTests.java
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
 /**
  * @author Tomaz Fernandes
  * @author Adrian Chlebosz
+ * @author Heejin Jeon
  * @since 2.7
  */
 @ExtendWith(MockitoExtension.class)
@@ -73,7 +74,8 @@ void shouldSetFixedBackOffPolicy() {
 
 		// setup
 		RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder builder = new RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder();
-		builder.fixedBackOff(1000);
+		builder.fixedBackOff(1000)
+				.sameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy(SameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy.MULTIPLE_TOPICS);
 
 		//when
 		RetryTopicConfiguration configuration = builder.create(kafkaOperations);
@@ -91,7 +93,8 @@ void shouldSetNoBackoffPolicy() {
 
 		// setup
 		RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder builder = new RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder();
-		builder.noBackoff();
+		builder.noBackoff()
+				.sameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy(SameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy.MULTIPLE_TOPICS);
 
 		//when
 		RetryTopicConfiguration configuration = builder.create(kafkaOperations);
@@ -201,6 +204,7 @@ void shouldSetDltRoutingRules() {
 
 		//when
 		RetryTopicConfiguration configuration = builder
+			.sameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy(SameIntervalTopicReuseStrategy.MULTIPLE_TOPICS)
 			.dltRoutingRules(Map.of("-deserialization", Set.of(DeserializationException.class)))
 			.create(kafkaOperations);