diff --git a/docs/content/getting-started/configuration.md b/docs/content/getting-started/configuration.md
index b81d878b3..2dafdb52b 100644
--- a/docs/content/getting-started/configuration.md
+++ b/docs/content/getting-started/configuration.md
@@ -111,6 +111,8 @@ googleAnalytics:            ""
 # if true, auto-detect Chinese/Japanese/Korean Languages in the content. (.Summary and .WordCount can work properly in CJKLanguage)
 hasCJKLanguage:             false
 languageCode:               ""
+# the length of text to show in a .Summary
+summaryLength:              70
 layoutDir:                  "layouts"
 # Enable Logging
 log:                        false
@@ -252,6 +254,8 @@ googleAnalytics =             ""
 # if true, auto-detect Chinese/Japanese/Korean Languages in the content. (.Summary and .WordCount can work properly in CJKLanguage)
 hasCJKLanguage =              false
 languageCode =                ""
+# the length of text to show in a .Summary
+summaryLength:              70
 layoutDir =                   "layouts"
 # Enable Logging
 log =                         false
diff --git a/helpers/content.go b/helpers/content.go
index 7f5975869..a79da090b 100644
--- a/helpers/content.go
+++ b/helpers/content.go
@@ -36,9 +36,6 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 )
 
-// SummaryLength is the length of the summary that Hugo extracts from a content.
-var SummaryLength = 70
-
 // SummaryDivider denotes where content summarization should end. The default is "<!--more-->".
 var SummaryDivider = []byte("<!--more-->")
 
@@ -47,6 +44,8 @@ type ContentSpec struct {
 	blackfriday                map[string]interface{}
 	footnoteAnchorPrefix       string
 	footnoteReturnLinkContents string
+	// SummaryLength is the length of the summary that Hugo extracts from a content.
+	summaryLength int
 
 	Highlight            func(code, lang, optsStr string) (string, error)
 	defatultPygmentsOpts map[string]string
@@ -61,6 +60,7 @@ func NewContentSpec(cfg config.Provider) (*ContentSpec, error) {
 		blackfriday:                cfg.GetStringMap("blackfriday"),
 		footnoteAnchorPrefix:       cfg.GetString("footnoteAnchorPrefix"),
 		footnoteReturnLinkContents: cfg.GetString("footnoteReturnLinkContents"),
+		summaryLength:              cfg.GetInt("summaryLength"),
 
 		cfg: cfg,
 	}
@@ -480,20 +480,20 @@ func totalWordsOld(s string) int {
 }
 
 // TruncateWordsByRune truncates words by runes.
-func TruncateWordsByRune(words []string, max int) (string, bool) {
+func (c *ContentSpec) TruncateWordsByRune(words []string) (string, bool) {
 	count := 0
 	for index, word := range words {
-		if count >= max {
+		if count >= c.summaryLength {
 			return strings.Join(words[:index], " "), true
 		}
 		runeCount := utf8.RuneCountInString(word)
 		if len(word) == runeCount {
 			count++
-		} else if count+runeCount < max {
+		} else if count+runeCount < c.summaryLength {
 			count += runeCount
 		} else {
 			for ri := range word {
-				if count >= max {
+				if count >= c.summaryLength {
 					truncatedWords := append(words[:index], word[:ri])
 					return strings.Join(truncatedWords, " "), true
 				}
@@ -507,8 +507,7 @@ func TruncateWordsByRune(words []string, max int) (string, bool) {
 
 // TruncateWordsToWholeSentence takes content and truncates to whole sentence
 // limited by max number of words. It also returns whether it is truncated.
-func TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(s string, max int) (string, bool) {
-
+func (c *ContentSpec) TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(s string) (string, bool) {
 	var (
 		wordCount     = 0
 		lastWordIndex = -1
@@ -519,7 +518,7 @@ func TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(s string, max int) (string, bool) {
 			wordCount++
 			lastWordIndex = i
 
-			if wordCount >= max {
+			if wordCount >= c.summaryLength {
 				break
 			}
 
@@ -551,24 +550,24 @@ func isEndOfSentence(r rune) bool {
 }
 
 // Kept only for benchmark.
-func truncateWordsToWholeSentenceOld(content string, max int) (string, bool) {
+func (c *ContentSpec) truncateWordsToWholeSentenceOld(content string) (string, bool) {
 	words := strings.Fields(content)
 
-	if max >= len(words) {
+	if c.summaryLength >= len(words) {
 		return strings.Join(words, " "), false
 	}
 
-	for counter, word := range words[max:] {
+	for counter, word := range words[c.summaryLength:] {
 		if strings.HasSuffix(word, ".") ||
 			strings.HasSuffix(word, "?") ||
 			strings.HasSuffix(word, ".\"") ||
 			strings.HasSuffix(word, "!") {
-			upper := max + counter + 1
+			upper := c.summaryLength + counter + 1
 			return strings.Join(words[:upper], " "), (upper < len(words))
 		}
 	}
 
-	return strings.Join(words[:max], " "), true
+	return strings.Join(words[:c.summaryLength], " "), true
 }
 
 func getAsciidocExecPath() string {
diff --git a/helpers/content_test.go b/helpers/content_test.go
index b0afb9cbd..8f2d44cd9 100644
--- a/helpers/content_test.go
+++ b/helpers/content_test.go
@@ -76,20 +76,23 @@ func TestBytesToHTML(t *testing.T) {
 var benchmarkTruncateString = strings.Repeat("This is a sentence about nothing.", 20)
 
 func BenchmarkTestTruncateWordsToWholeSentence(b *testing.B) {
+	c := newTestContentSpec()
 	b.ResetTimer()
 	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
-		TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(benchmarkTruncateString, SummaryLength)
+		c.TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(benchmarkTruncateString)
 	}
 }
 
 func BenchmarkTestTruncateWordsToWholeSentenceOld(b *testing.B) {
+	c := newTestContentSpec()
 	b.ResetTimer()
 	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
-		truncateWordsToWholeSentenceOld(benchmarkTruncateString, SummaryLength)
+		c.truncateWordsToWholeSentenceOld(benchmarkTruncateString)
 	}
 }
 
 func TestTruncateWordsToWholeSentence(t *testing.T) {
+	c := newTestContentSpec()
 	type test struct {
 		input, expected string
 		max             int
@@ -104,9 +107,11 @@ func TestTruncateWordsToWholeSentence(t *testing.T) {
 		{"To be. Or not to be. That's the question.", "To be.", 1, true},
 		{" \nThis is not a sentence\nAnd this is another", "This is not a sentence", 4, true},
 		{"", "", 10, false},
+		{"This... is a more difficult test?", "This... is a more difficult test?", 1, false},
 	}
 	for i, d := range data {
-		output, truncated := TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(d.input, d.max)
+		c.summaryLength = d.max
+		output, truncated := c.TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(d.input)
 		if d.expected != output {
 			t.Errorf("Test %d failed. Expected %q got %q", i, d.expected, output)
 		}
@@ -118,6 +123,7 @@ func TestTruncateWordsToWholeSentence(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestTruncateWordsByRune(t *testing.T) {
+	c := newTestContentSpec()
 	type test struct {
 		input, expected string
 		max             int
@@ -139,7 +145,8 @@ func TestTruncateWordsByRune(t *testing.T) {
 		{" \nThis is    not a sentence\n ", "This is not", 3, true},
 	}
 	for i, d := range data {
-		output, truncated := TruncateWordsByRune(strings.Fields(d.input), d.max)
+		c.summaryLength = d.max
+		output, truncated := c.TruncateWordsByRune(strings.Fields(d.input))
 		if d.expected != output {
 			t.Errorf("Test %d failed. Expected %q got %q", i, d.expected, output)
 		}
diff --git a/hugolib/config.go b/hugolib/config.go
index 2406ba771..d0ade018f 100644
--- a/hugolib/config.go
+++ b/hugolib/config.go
@@ -135,6 +135,7 @@ func loadDefaultSettingsFor(v *viper.Viper) error {
 	v.SetDefault("newContentEditor", "")
 	v.SetDefault("paginate", 10)
 	v.SetDefault("paginatePath", "page")
+	v.SetDefault("summaryLength", 70)
 	v.SetDefault("blackfriday", c.NewBlackfriday())
 	v.SetDefault("rSSUri", "index.xml")
 	v.SetDefault("rssLimit", -1)
diff --git a/hugolib/page.go b/hugolib/page.go
index d5c444ed6..12bdf312b 100644
--- a/hugolib/page.go
+++ b/hugolib/page.go
@@ -677,9 +677,9 @@ func (p *Page) setAutoSummary() error {
 	var summary string
 	var truncated bool
 	if p.isCJKLanguage {
-		summary, truncated = helpers.TruncateWordsByRune(p.PlainWords(), helpers.SummaryLength)
+		summary, truncated = p.s.ContentSpec.TruncateWordsByRune(p.PlainWords())
 	} else {
-		summary, truncated = helpers.TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(p.Plain(), helpers.SummaryLength)
+		summary, truncated = p.s.ContentSpec.TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(p.Plain())
 	}
 	p.Summary = template.HTML(summary)
 	p.Truncated = truncated