diff --git a/init/action.yml b/init/action.yml
index 544eebdb2..c33e8a61e 100644
--- a/init/action.yml
+++ b/init/action.yml
@@ -115,7 +115,6 @@ inputs:
       (which for GitHub-hosted runners is 2 for Linux and Windows and 3 for macOS).
       This input also sets the number of threads that can later be used by the "analyze" action.
     required: false
-    default: "${{ env.CODEQL_THREADS }}"
   debug:
     description: >-
       Enable debugging mode.
diff --git a/src/init-action.ts b/src/init-action.ts
index b399d9dc5..e9c6cd0d3 100644
--- a/src/init-action.ts
+++ b/src/init-action.ts
@@ -547,7 +547,8 @@ async function run() {
     );
     core.exportVariable(
       "CODEQL_THREADS",
-      getThreadsFlagValue(getOptionalInput("threads"), logger).toString(),
+      process.env["CODEQL_THREADS"] ||
+        getThreadsFlagValue(getOptionalInput("threads"), logger).toString(),
     );
 
     // Disable Kotlin extractor if feature flag set