diff --git a/roles/debian/php-fpm/defaults/main.yml b/roles/debian/php-fpm/defaults/main.yml
index 9eaa195e7..12b52dac7 100644
--- a/roles/debian/php-fpm/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/roles/debian/php-fpm/defaults/main.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ php:
     # It is important to scale up processes on bigger servers, so that more
     # requests can be handled. Double the number of vCPUs is a good default.
     # Can be between 5 and 64.
-    max_children: "{{ [5, (ansible_facts.ansible_processor_nproc | default(1)) * 2, 64] | max }}" # Fallback in case ansible_processor_nproc is not gathered before tasks
+    max_children: "{{ [5, [(ansible_facts.ansible_processor_nproc | default(1)) * 2, 64] | min] | max }}" # Fallback in case ansible_processor_nproc is not gathered before tasks
     start_servers: 2
     min_spare_servers: 1
     max_spare_servers: 3