diff --git a/libavcodec/libaomdec.c b/libavcodec/libaomdec.c
index 6a2de6d47a..2530c9f76b 100644
--- a/libavcodec/libaomdec.c
+++ b/libavcodec/libaomdec.c
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ static av_cold int aom_init(AVCodecContext *avctx,
     AV1DecodeContext *ctx           = avctx->priv_data;
     struct aom_codec_dec_cfg deccfg = {
         /* token partitions+1 would be a decent choice */
-        .threads = FFMIN(avctx->thread_count, 16)
+        .threads = FFMIN(avctx->thread_count ? avctx->thread_count : av_cpu_count(), 16)
     };
 
     av_log(avctx, AV_LOG_INFO, "%s\n", aom_codec_version_str());
diff --git a/libavcodec/libaomenc.c b/libavcodec/libaomenc.c
index bbf4cf8b64..6a79d9b873 100644
--- a/libavcodec/libaomenc.c
+++ b/libavcodec/libaomenc.c
@@ -319,7 +319,7 @@ static av_cold int aom_init(AVCodecContext *avctx,
     enccfg.g_h            = avctx->height;
     enccfg.g_timebase.num = avctx->time_base.num;
     enccfg.g_timebase.den = avctx->time_base.den;
-    enccfg.g_threads      = avctx->thread_count;
+    enccfg.g_threads      = avctx->thread_count ? avctx->thread_count : av_cpu_count();
 
     if (ctx->lag_in_frames >= 0)
         enccfg.g_lag_in_frames = ctx->lag_in_frames;