diff --git a/docs/topics/settings.rst b/docs/topics/settings.rst
index 490f61687..9d780b66d 100644
--- a/docs/topics/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/settings.rst
@@ -764,9 +764,9 @@ A dict containing the request download handlers enabled by default in Scrapy.
 You should never modify this setting in your project, modify
 :setting:`REQUEST_HANDLERS` instead. 
 
-.. setting:: REQUESTS_PER_DOMAIN
+.. setting:: REQUESTS_PER_SPIDER
 
-REQUESTS_PER_DOMAIN
+REQUESTS_PER_SPIDER
 -------------------
 
 Default: ``8``
diff --git a/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py b/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
index 41c304a1a..17f976c65 100644
--- a/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
+++ b/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ REQUEST_HANDLERS_BASE = {
 }
 
 REQUESTS_QUEUE_SIZE = 0
-REQUESTS_PER_DOMAIN = 8     # max simultaneous requests per domain
+REQUESTS_PER_SPIDER = 8     # max simultaneous requests per domain
 
 # contrib.middleware.retry.RetryMiddleware default settings
 RETRY_TIMES = 2 # initial response + 2 retries = 3 requests
diff --git a/scrapy/core/downloader/manager.py b/scrapy/core/downloader/manager.py
index 94ab9404b..b55777675 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/manager.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/manager.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ class SiteInfo(object):
         if download_delay:
             self.max_concurrent_requests = 1
         elif max_concurrent_requests is None:
-            self.max_concurrent_requests = settings.getint('REQUESTS_PER_DOMAIN')
+            self.max_concurrent_requests = settings.getint('REQUESTS_PER_SPIDER')
         else:
             self.max_concurrent_requests =  max_concurrent_requests