diff --git a/cmd/podman/common/build.go b/cmd/podman/common/build.go
index e6d3aa5597..100e6568d5 100644
--- a/cmd/podman/common/build.go
+++ b/cmd/podman/common/build.go
@@ -65,11 +65,11 @@ func DefineBuildFlags(cmd *cobra.Command, buildOpts *BuildFlagsWrapper) {
 
 	// --pull flag
 	flag := budFlags.Lookup("pull")
-	if err := flag.Value.Set("true"); err != nil {
-		logrus.Errorf("Unable to set --pull to true: %v", err)
+	flag.DefValue = "missing"
+	if err := flag.Value.Set("missing"); err != nil {
+		logrus.Errorf("Unable to set --pull to 'missing': %v", err)
 	}
-	flag.DefValue = "true"
-	flag.Usage = "Always attempt to pull the image (errors are fatal)"
+	flag.Usage = `Pull image policy ("always/true"|"missing"|"never/false"|"newer")`
 	flags.AddFlagSet(&budFlags)
 
 	// Add the completion functions
diff --git a/docs/source/markdown/podman-build.1.md.in b/docs/source/markdown/podman-build.1.md.in
index cbf1e71fca..b635807ad9 100644
--- a/docs/source/markdown/podman-build.1.md.in
+++ b/docs/source/markdown/podman-build.1.md.in
@@ -653,7 +653,7 @@ the help of emulation provided by packages like `qemu-user-static`.
 
 #### **--pull**=*policy*
 
-Pull image policy. The default is **always**.
+Pull image policy. The default is **missing**.
 
 - **always**, **true**: Always pull the image and throw an error if the pull fails.
 - **missing**: Only pull the image when it does not exist in the local containers storage.  Throw an error if no image is found and the pull fails.
diff --git a/test/system/070-build.bats b/test/system/070-build.bats
index d780a2e2df..56da8ef32d 100644
--- a/test/system/070-build.bats
+++ b/test/system/070-build.bats
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ EOF
     PODMAN_TIMEOUT=240 run_podman build -t build_test --format=docker $tmpdir
     is "$output" ".*COMMIT" "COMMIT seen in log"
 
+    # $IMAGE is preloaded, so we should never re-pull
+    assert "$output" !~ "Trying to pull" "Default pull policy should be 'missing'"
+    assert "$output" !~ "Writing manifest" "Default pull policy should be 'missing'"
+
     run_podman run --rm build_test cat /$rand_filename
     is "$output"   "$rand_content"   "reading generated file in image"