diff --git a/beacon_node/src/cli.rs b/beacon_node/src/cli.rs
index cd88fdac715..59e8cf4ac52 100644
--- a/beacon_node/src/cli.rs
+++ b/beacon_node/src/cli.rs
@@ -259,15 +259,6 @@ pub fn cli_app<'a, 'b>() -> App<'a, 'b> {
                 .help("Lighthouse by default does not discover private IP addresses. Set this flag to enable connection attempts to local addresses.")
                 .takes_value(false),
         )
-        .arg(
-            Arg::with_name("disable-inbound-rate-limiter")
-                .long("disable-inbound-rate-limiter")
-                .help("Disables the inbound rate limiting (received by this node) over rpc. \
-                       Note: using this option could overwhelm the node with unbounded number \
-                       of rpc requests. Use with caution.")
-                .hidden(true)
-                .takes_value(false),
-        )
         .arg(
             Arg::with_name("self-limiter")
             .long("self-limiter")
@@ -295,14 +286,16 @@ pub fn cli_app<'a, 'b>() -> App<'a, 'b> {
             Arg::with_name("inbound-rate-limiter")
             .long("inbound-rate-limiter")
             .help(
-                "Enables the inbound rate limiter (requests received by this node).\
+                "Configures the inbound rate limiter (requests received by this node).\
                 \
                 Rate limit quotas per protocol can be set in the form of \
                 <protocol_name>:<tokens>/<time_in_seconds>. To set quotas for multiple protocols, \
                 separate them by ';'. If the inbound rate limiter is enabled and a protocol is not \
-                present in the configuration, the default quotas will be used."
+                present in the configuration, the default quotas will be used. \
+                \
+                This is enabled by default, using default quotas. To disable rate limiting pass \
+                `disabled` to this option instead."
             )
-            .min_values(0)
             .hidden(true)
         )
         .arg(
diff --git a/beacon_node/src/config.rs b/beacon_node/src/config.rs
index f67bdfb15f5..7bfe96f67bd 100644
--- a/beacon_node/src/config.rs
+++ b/beacon_node/src/config.rs
@@ -1253,18 +1253,22 @@ pub fn set_network_config(
         config.proposer_only = true;
         warn!(log, "Proposer-only mode enabled"; "info"=> "Do not connect a validator client to this node unless via the --proposer-nodes flag");
     }
-    // The inbound rate limiter is enabled by default unless the `disable-inbound-rate-limiter` flag is specified.
-    // Hence, we first try to parse it with a value, if no value is defined, we set it to the default parameters.
-    // If `disable-inbound-rate-limiter` is specified, we disable inbound rate limiting explicitly.
-    config.inbound_rate_limiter_config =
-        clap_utils::parse_optional(cli_args, "inbound-rate-limiter")?;
-    if config.inbound_rate_limiter_config.is_none() {
-        config.inbound_rate_limiter_config = Some(Default::default());
-    }
-    if cli_args.is_present("disable-inbound-rate-limiter") {
-        config.inbound_rate_limiter_config = None;
-    }
-
+    // The inbound rate limiter is enabled by default unless `disabled` is passed to the
+    // `inbound-rate-limiter` flag. Any other value should be parsed as a configuration string.
+    config.inbound_rate_limiter_config = match cli_args.value_of("inbound-rate-limiter") {
+        None => {
+            // Enabled by default, with default values
+            Some(Default::default())
+        }
+        Some("disabled") => {
+            // Explicitly disabled
+            None
+        }
+        Some(config_str) => {
+            // Enabled with a custom configuration
+            Some(config_str.parse()?)
+        }
+    };
     Ok(())
 }
 
@@ -1340,4 +1344,4 @@ where
         .into_iter()
         .next()
         .ok_or(format!("Must provide at least one value to {}", flag_name))
-}
+}
\ No newline at end of file