diff --git a/docs/ref/settings.txt b/docs/ref/settings.txt
index ad34e1d414..4c30ccbfad 100644
--- a/docs/ref/settings.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/settings.txt
@@ -431,7 +431,7 @@ EMAIL_BACKEND
 
 .. versionadded:: 1.2
 
-Default: ``'smtp'``
+Default: ``'django.core.email.backends.smtp'``
 
 The backend to use for sending emails. For the list of available backends see
 :ref:`topics-email`.