diff --git a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
index 89cc274a1ce..9f25743b2b7 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
@@ -2377,7 +2377,7 @@ function setup-coredns-manifest {
   sed -i -e "s@{{ *pillar\['dns_domain'\] *}}@${DNS_DOMAIN}@g" "${coredns_file}"
   sed -i -e "s@{{ *pillar\['dns_server'\] *}}@${DNS_SERVER_IP}@g" "${coredns_file}"
   sed -i -e "s@{{ *pillar\['service_cluster_ip_range'\] *}}@${SERVICE_CLUSTER_IP_RANGE}@g" "${coredns_file}"
-  sed -i -e "s@{{ *pillar\['dns_memory_limit'\] *}}@${DNS_MEMORY_LIMIT}@g" "${coredns_file}"
+  sed -i -e "s@{{ *pillar\['dns_memory_limit'\] *}}@${DNS_MEMORY_LIMIT:-170Mi}@g" "${coredns_file}"
 
   if [[ "${ENABLE_DNS_HORIZONTAL_AUTOSCALER:-}" == "true" ]]; then
     setup-addon-manifests "addons" "dns-horizontal-autoscaler" "gce"
@@ -2429,7 +2429,7 @@ EOF
   # Replace the salt configurations with variable values.
   sed -i -e "s@{{ *pillar\['dns_domain'\] *}}@${DNS_DOMAIN}@g" "${kubedns_file}"
   sed -i -e "s@{{ *pillar\['dns_server'\] *}}@${DNS_SERVER_IP}@g" "${kubedns_file}"
-  sed -i -e "s@{{ *pillar\['dns_memory_limit'\] *}}@${DNS_MEMORY_LIMIT}@g" "${kubedns_file}"
+  sed -i -e "s@{{ *pillar\['dns_memory_limit'\] *}}@${DNS_MEMORY_LIMIT:-170Mi}@g" "${kubedns_file}"
 
   if [[ "${ENABLE_DNS_HORIZONTAL_AUTOSCALER:-}" == "true" ]]; then
     setup-addon-manifests "addons" "dns-horizontal-autoscaler" "gce"