diff --git a/.changeset/red-parrots-drum.md b/.changeset/red-parrots-drum.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..55d12723f3a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/red-parrots-drum.md
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+---
+'astro': patch
+---
+
+**BREAKING CHANGE to the experimental Fonts API only**
+
+Updates the default `subsets` to `["latin"]`
+
+Subsets have been a common source of confusion: they caused a lot of files to be downloaded by default. You now have to manually pick extra subsets.
+
+Review your Astro config and update subsets if you need, for example if you need greek characters:
+
+```diff
+import { defineConfig, fontProviders } from "astro/config"
+
+export default defineConfig({
+    experimental: {
+        fonts: [{
+            name: "Roboto",
+            cssVariable: "--font-roboto",
+            provider: fontProviders.google(),
++            subsets: ["latin", "greek"]
+        }]
+    }
+})
+```
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/packages/astro/src/assets/fonts/config.ts b/packages/astro/src/assets/fonts/config.ts
index 73b28105bf64..46e27ff083fd 100644
--- a/packages/astro/src/assets/fonts/config.ts
+++ b/packages/astro/src/assets/fonts/config.ts
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ export const remoteFontFamilySchema = requiredFamilyAttributesSchema
 			 */
 			styles: z.array(styleSchema).nonempty().optional(),
 			/**
-			 * @default `["cyrillic-ext", "cyrillic", "greek-ext", "greek", "vietnamese", "latin-ext", "latin"]`
+			 * @default `["latin"]`
 			 *
 			 * An array of [font subsets](https://knaap.dev/posts/font-subsetting/):
 			 */
diff --git a/packages/astro/src/assets/fonts/constants.ts b/packages/astro/src/assets/fonts/constants.ts
index 557f48ac0c70..07b4195b51a4 100644
--- a/packages/astro/src/assets/fonts/constants.ts
+++ b/packages/astro/src/assets/fonts/constants.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ export const LOCAL_PROVIDER_NAME = 'local';
 export const DEFAULTS: Defaults = {
 	weights: ['400'],
 	styles: ['normal', 'italic'],
-	subsets: ['cyrillic-ext', 'cyrillic', 'greek-ext', 'greek', 'vietnamese', 'latin-ext', 'latin'],
+	subsets: ['latin'],
 	// Technically serif is the browser default but most websites these days use sans-serif
 	fallbacks: ['sans-serif'],
 	optimizedFallbacks: true,