diff --git a/.drone.star b/.drone.star
index 2ef24166cb1..9a5eeef7369 100644
--- a/.drone.star
+++ b/.drone.star
@@ -3672,7 +3672,7 @@ def deleteStaleBranches(ctx):
                     },
                 },
                 "commands": [
-                    "DRY_RUN=false ./scripts/delete-stale-branches.sh",
+                    "./scripts/delete-stale-branches.sh",
                 ],
             },
         ],
diff --git a/scripts/delete-stale-branches.sh b/scripts/delete-stale-branches.sh
index 76c6c2f17c7..3e6594cbe81 100755
--- a/scripts/delete-stale-branches.sh
+++ b/scripts/delete-stale-branches.sh
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ VERBOSE="${VERBOSE:-false}"
 
 DAYS_BEFORE_STALE="${DAYS_BEFORE_STALE:-90}"
 IGNORE_BRANCHES_REGEX="^(main$|master$|stable-|release-|docs$|docs-stable-)"
-MAX_BRANCHES_PER_RUN="${MAX_BRANCHES_PER_RUN:-10}"
+MAX_BRANCHES_PER_RUN="${MAX_BRANCHES_PER_RUN:-5}"
 
 # Global variables
 branch_info_file=""