diff --git a/backend/onyx/utils/logger.py b/backend/onyx/utils/logger.py
index eebb1373032..99f00263a01 100644
--- a/backend/onyx/utils/logger.py
+++ b/backend/onyx/utils/logger.py
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ def get_log_level_from_str(log_level_str: str = LOG_LEVEL) -> int:
         "NOTSET": logging.NOTSET,
     }
 
-    return log_level_dict.get(log_level_str.upper(), logging.getLevelName("NOTICE"))
+    return log_level_dict.get(log_level_str.upper(), logging.INFO)
 
 
 class OnyxRequestIDFilter(logging.Filter):
diff --git a/backend/shared_configs/configs.py b/backend/shared_configs/configs.py
index 9be732037e7..78a9031f25c 100644
--- a/backend/shared_configs/configs.py
+++ b/backend/shared_configs/configs.py
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ LOG_FILE_NAME = os.environ.get("LOG_FILE_NAME") or "onyx"
 # Enable generating persistent log files for local dev environments
 DEV_LOGGING_ENABLED = os.environ.get("DEV_LOGGING_ENABLED", "").lower() == "true"
 # notset, debug, info, notice, warning, error, or critical
-LOG_LEVEL = os.environ.get("LOG_LEVEL", "info")
+LOG_LEVEL = os.environ.get("LOG_LEVEL") or "info"
 
 # Timeout for API-based embedding models
 # NOTE: does not apply for Google VertexAI, since the python client doesn't