diff --git a/beets/autotag/mb.py b/beets/autotag/mb.py
index 78f4cba7d..6889eeaf6 100644
--- a/beets/autotag/mb.py
+++ b/beets/autotag/mb.py
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ import beets
 from beets import util
 from beets import config
 
-SEARCH_LIMIT = 5
 VARIOUS_ARTISTS_ID = '89ad4ac3-39f7-470e-963a-56509c546377'
 BASE_URL = 'http://musicbrainz.org/'
 
@@ -301,7 +300,7 @@ def album_info(release):
     return info
 
 
-def match_album(artist, album, tracks=None, limit=SEARCH_LIMIT):
+def match_album(artist, album, tracks=None):
     """Searches for a single album ("release" in MusicBrainz parlance)
     and returns an iterator over AlbumInfo objects. May raise a
     MusicBrainzAPIError.
@@ -324,7 +323,8 @@ def match_album(artist, album, tracks=None, limit=SEARCH_LIMIT):
         return
 
     try:
-        res = musicbrainzngs.search_releases(limit=limit, **criteria)
+        res = musicbrainzngs.search_releases(
+            limit=config['musicbrainz']['searchlimit'].get(int), **criteria)
     except musicbrainzngs.MusicBrainzError as exc:
         raise MusicBrainzAPIError(exc, 'release search', criteria,
                                   traceback.format_exc())
@@ -336,7 +336,7 @@ def match_album(artist, album, tracks=None, limit=SEARCH_LIMIT):
             yield albuminfo
 
 
-def match_track(artist, title, limit=SEARCH_LIMIT):
+def match_track(artist, title):
     """Searches for a single track and returns an iterable of TrackInfo
     objects. May raise a MusicBrainzAPIError.
     """
@@ -349,7 +349,8 @@ def match_track(artist, title, limit=SEARCH_LIMIT):
         return
 
     try:
-        res = musicbrainzngs.search_recordings(limit=limit, **criteria)
+        res = musicbrainzngs.search_recordings(
+            limit=config['musicbrainz']['searchlimit'].get(int), **criteria)
     except musicbrainzngs.MusicBrainzError as exc:
         raise MusicBrainzAPIError(exc, 'recording search', criteria,
                                   traceback.format_exc())
diff --git a/beets/config_default.yaml b/beets/config_default.yaml
index 78f16d051..1d3c4ad7a 100644
--- a/beets/config_default.yaml
+++ b/beets/config_default.yaml
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ musicbrainz:
     host: musicbrainz.org
     ratelimit: 1
     ratelimit_interval: 1.0
+    searchlimit: 5
 
 match:
     strong_rec_thresh: 0.04
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index a1d6023f9..3f82ff6f0 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ Changelog
 Features:
 
 * Stop on invalid queries instead of ignoring the invalid part.
+* A new :ref:`searchlimit` configuration option allows you to specify how many
+  search results you wish to see when looking up releases at MusicBrainz
+  during import. :bug:`1245`
 
 Fixes:
 
diff --git a/docs/reference/config.rst b/docs/reference/config.rst
index 858362f15..7782e4ad8 100644
--- a/docs/reference/config.rst
+++ b/docs/reference/config.rst
@@ -480,6 +480,16 @@ to one request per second.
 .. _limited: http://musicbrainz.org/doc/XML_Web_Service/Rate_Limiting
 .. _MusicBrainz: http://musicbrainz.org/
 
+.. _searchlimit:
+
+searchlimit
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The number of matches returned when sending search queries to the
+MusicBrainz server.
+
+Default: ``5``.
+
 .. _match-config:
 
 Autotagger Matching Options