diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 241c9ae1..5c6b00ec 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -265,6 +265,8 @@
 
 ### Unreleased
 
+- Add abigen to default features
+  [#1684](https://github.com/gakonst/ethers-rs/pull/1684)
 - Add extra Multicall helper methods
   [#1666](https://github.com/gakonst/ethers-rs/pull/1666)
 - Update Multicall to Multicall3
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 211c1d42..29934e47 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@ rustdoc-args = ["--cfg", "docsrs"]
 features = ["full"]
 
 [features]
+default = ["abigen"]
+
 celo = [
     "ethers-core/celo",
     "ethers-providers/celo",
diff --git a/ethers-contract/Cargo.toml b/ethers-contract/Cargo.toml
index 39adcee2..85e8fb01 100644
--- a/ethers-contract/Cargo.toml
+++ b/ethers-contract/Cargo.toml
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ ethers-solc = { version = "^0.17.0", path = "../ethers-solc", default-features =
 tokio = { version = "1.18", default-features = false, features = ["macros"] }
 
 [features]
+default = ["abigen"]
+
 eip712 = ["ethers-derive-eip712", "ethers-core/eip712"]
 abigen = ["ethers-contract-abigen/reqwest", "ethers-contract-derive"]
 abigen-offline = ["ethers-contract-abigen", "ethers-contract-derive"]