diff --git a/nlp b/nlp
index 706594b..6e8996b 100755
--- a/nlp
+++ b/nlp
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ def parse_arguments():
                         help="Output directory.",
                         required=True)
     parser.add_argument("--nCores",
-                        default=max(4, multiprocessing.cpu_count()),
+                        default=min(4, multiprocessing.cpu_count()),
                         dest="nCores",
                         help="Total number of cores available.",
                         required=False,