diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a05bf0a4..cdad7282 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 - Finish replayed GTID transactions before stopping at cutover, even when their GTIDs were already streamed before a reconnect.
 - Exclude the current GTID from serialized resume checkpoints during reconnect replay, preserving other committed GTIDs. Stop streaming on invalid GTID identities before delivering further rows.
 - Publish binlog stop requests atomically after recording the stop coordinate, including reads from the control server.
+- Default `ProgressReportFrequency` and `StateReportFrequency` to 60000 ms, and reject values below 100 ms when the matching callback is set. An unset, zero or negative frequency used to make Ghostferry post to the callback in a tight loop ([#214](https://github.com/Shopify/ghostferry/issues/214)).
 
 ## [1.3.1 - 2026-04-15]
 
diff --git a/config.go b/config.go
index 4cf51d0e..db469d42 100644
--- a/config.go
+++ b/config.go
@@ -23,6 +23,9 @@ const (
 	DefaultNet          = "tcp"
 	DefaultMarginalia   = "application:ghostferry"
 	MySQLNumParamsLimit = 1<<16 - 1 // see num_params https://dev.mysql.com/doc/internals/en/com-stmt-prepare-response.html
+
+	defaultReportFrequencyMs = 60000
+	minReportFrequencyMs     = 100
 )
 
 type TLSConfig struct {
@@ -634,12 +637,18 @@ type Config struct {
 	// Report progress via an HTTP callback. The Payload field of the callback
 	// will be sent to the server as the CustomPayload field in the Progress
 	// struct. The unit of ProgressReportFrequency is in milliseconds.
+	//
+	// Optional: ProgressReportFrequency defaults to 60000 and must be at least
+	// 100 when ProgressCallback is set.
 	ProgressCallback        HTTPCallback
 	ProgressReportFrequency int
 
 	// Report state via an HTTP callback. The serialized SerializableState
 	// (the same JSON as the state dump) will be sent as the Payload parameter.
 	// The unit of StateReportFrequency is in milliseconds.
+	//
+	// Optional: StateReportFrequency defaults to 60000 and must be at least
+	// 100 when StateCallback is set.
 	StateCallback        HTTPCallback
 	StateReportFrequency int
 
@@ -943,6 +952,20 @@ func (c *Config) ValidateConfig() error {
 		c.CutoverRetryWaitSeconds = 1
 	}
 
+	if c.ProgressReportFrequency == 0 {
+		c.ProgressReportFrequency = defaultReportFrequencyMs
+	}
+	if c.ProgressCallback.URI != "" && c.ProgressReportFrequency < minReportFrequencyMs {
+		return fmt.Errorf("ProgressReportFrequency must be at least %d milliseconds, got %d", minReportFrequencyMs, c.ProgressReportFrequency)
+	}
+
+	if c.StateReportFrequency == 0 {
+		c.StateReportFrequency = defaultReportFrequencyMs
+	}
+	if c.StateCallback.URI != "" && c.StateReportFrequency < minReportFrequencyMs {
+		return fmt.Errorf("StateReportFrequency must be at least %d milliseconds, got %d", minReportFrequencyMs, c.StateReportFrequency)
+	}
+
 	return nil
 }
 
diff --git a/test/go/config_test.go b/test/go/config_test.go
index 50b8d0f1..89a54888 100644
--- a/test/go/config_test.go
+++ b/test/go/config_test.go
@@ -220,6 +220,28 @@ func (this *ConfigTestSuite) TestBinlogCoordinateModeInvalidIsRejected() {
 	this.Require().EqualError(err, `invalid BinlogCoordinateMode "banana", must be "file_position" or "gtid"`)
 }
 
+func (this *ConfigTestSuite) TestReportFrequenciesDefaultWhenCallbacksAreSet() {
+	this.config.ProgressCallback.URI = "http://example.com/progress"
+	this.config.StateCallback.URI = "http://example.com/state"
+	err := this.config.ValidateConfig()
+	this.Require().Nil(err)
+	this.Require().Equal(60000, this.config.ProgressReportFrequency)
+	this.Require().Equal(60000, this.config.StateReportFrequency)
+}
+
+func (this *ConfigTestSuite) TestReportFrequenciesBelowMinimumAreRejected() {
+	this.config.ProgressCallback.URI = "http://example.com/progress"
+	this.config.ProgressReportFrequency = -1
+	err := this.config.ValidateConfig()
+	this.Require().EqualError(err, "ProgressReportFrequency must be at least 100 milliseconds, got -1")
+
+	this.SetupTest()
+	this.config.StateCallback.URI = "http://example.com/state"
+	this.config.StateReportFrequency = 50
+	err = this.config.ValidateConfig()
+	this.Require().EqualError(err, "StateReportFrequency must be at least 100 milliseconds, got 50")
+}
+
 func TestConfig(t *testing.T) {
 	testhelpers.SetupTest()
 	suite.Run(t, new(ConfigTestSuite))