diff --git a/common/arg.cpp b/common/arg.cpp
index 2669cacd6c..3080e394c9 100644
--- a/common/arg.cpp
+++ b/common/arg.cpp
@@ -355,7 +355,7 @@ static std::string get_default_local_path(const std::string & url) {
 }
 
 static bool spec_types_is_default(const common_params & params) {
-    return params.speculative.types == std::vector<enum common_speculative_type>{COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE};
+    return !params.speculative.spec_type_specified;
 }
 
 common_models_handler common_models_handler_init(const common_params & params, llama_example curr_ex) {
@@ -1401,8 +1401,11 @@ common_params_context common_params_parser_init(common_params & params, llama_ex
     } else if (ex == LLAMA_EXAMPLE_MTMD) {
         params.use_jinja = false;   // disable jinja by default
         params.sampling.temp = 0.2; // lower temp by default for better quality
-    } else if (ex == LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER) {
-        params.n_parallel = -1;     // auto by default
+    } else if (ex == LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER || ex == LLAMA_EXAMPLE_CLI) {
+        params.speculative = common_speculative_default_config();
+        if (ex == LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER) {
+            params.n_parallel = -1; // auto by default
+        }
     } else if (ex == LLAMA_EXAMPLE_TOKENIZE) {
         params.parse_special = true; // parse special tokens by default, like the old tokenize tool
     } else if (ex == LLAMA_EXAMPLE_TTS) {
@@ -4262,9 +4265,48 @@ common_params_context common_params_parser_init(common_params & params, llama_ex
         [](common_params & params, const std::string & value) {
             const auto types_str = string_split<std::string>(value, ',');
             auto types = common_speculative_types_from_names(types_str);
-            params.speculative.types.insert(params.speculative.types.end(), types.begin(), types.end());
+
+            params.speculative.spec_type_specified = true;
+
+            if (types.size() == 1 && types.front() == COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE) {
+                params.speculative.types = { COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE };
+                return;
+            }
+
+            params.speculative.types.erase(
+                std::remove(params.speculative.types.begin(), params.speculative.types.end(), COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE),
+                params.speculative.types.end());
+
+            for (const auto & type : types) {
+                if (std::find(params.speculative.types.begin(), params.speculative.types.end(), type) == params.speculative.types.end()) {
+                    params.speculative.types.push_back(type);
+                }
+            }
         }
     ).set_spec().set_examples({LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SPECULATIVE, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_CLI}).set_env("LLAMA_ARG_SPEC_TYPE"));
+    add_opt(common_arg(
+        {"--no-spec-type"}, common_speculative_all_types_str(),
+        string_format("comma-separated list of types of speculative decoding to remove\n"),
+        [](common_params & params, const std::string & value) {
+            const auto types_str = string_split<std::string>(value, ',');
+            auto types = common_speculative_types_from_names(types_str);
+
+            if (types.size() == 1 && types.front() == COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE) {
+                params.speculative.spec_type_specified = true;
+                params.speculative.types = { COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE };
+                return;
+            }
+
+            for (const auto & type : types) {
+                params.speculative.types.erase(
+                    std::remove(params.speculative.types.begin(), params.speculative.types.end(), type),
+                    params.speculative.types.end());
+            }
+            if (params.speculative.types.empty()) {
+                params.speculative.types = { COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE };
+            }
+        }
+    ).set_spec().set_examples({LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SPECULATIVE, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_CLI}).set_env("LLAMA_ARG_NO_SPEC_TYPE"));
     add_opt(common_arg(
         {"--spec-ngram-mod-n-min"}, "N",
         string_format("minimum number of ngram tokens to use for ngram-based speculative decoding (default: %d)", params.speculative.ngram_mod.n_min),
@@ -4731,20 +4773,11 @@ common_params_context common_params_parser_init(common_params & params, llama_ex
 
     add_opt(common_arg(
         {"--spec-default"},
-        string_format("enable default speculative decoding config"),
-        [](common_params & params) {
-            params.speculative.types.push_back(COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NGRAM_MOD);
-            params.speculative.ngram_mod.n_match = 24;
-            params.speculative.ngram_mod.n_min = 48;
-            params.speculative.ngram_mod.n_max = 64;
-
-            // TODO: not sure if this is a good config - explore more settings and potentially enable it
-            //params.speculative.types.push_back(COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NGRAM_MAP_K4V);
-            //params.speculative.ngram_map_k4v.size_n = 8;
-            //params.speculative.ngram_map_k4v.size_m = 24;
-            //params.speculative.ngram_map_k4v.min_hits = 2;
+        string_format("DEPRECATED: default speculative decoding is enabled by default, use --no-spec-type to remove types"),
+        [](common_params &) {
+            LOG_WRN("DEPRECATED: --spec-default is no longer needed; default speculative decoding is enabled by default\n");
         }
-    ).set_examples({LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_CLI}));
+    ).set_spec().set_examples({LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_CLI}));
 
     return ctx_arg;
 }
diff --git a/common/common.h b/common/common.h
index 63d0badd0f..946c0d3180 100644
--- a/common/common.h
+++ b/common/common.h
@@ -369,6 +369,7 @@ struct common_params_speculative_ngram_cache {
 
 struct common_params_speculative {
     std::vector<enum common_speculative_type> types = { COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE };
+    bool spec_type_specified = false; // set when --spec-type is used
 
     double synth_len = -1.0;
     std::vector<double> synth_rates;
diff --git a/common/speculative.cpp b/common/speculative.cpp
index 851a47b9a5..41b886920e 100644
--- a/common/speculative.cpp
+++ b/common/speculative.cpp
@@ -44,6 +44,15 @@ const std::map<std::string, common_speculative_type> common_speculative_type_fro
     {"ngram-cache",   COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NGRAM_CACHE}
 };
 
+common_params_speculative common_speculative_default_config() {
+    common_params_speculative result;
+    result.types = { COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NGRAM_MOD };
+    result.ngram_mod.n_match = 24;
+    result.ngram_mod.n_min   = 48;
+    result.ngram_mod.n_max   = 64;
+    return result;
+}
+
 static std::string common_speculative_get_devices_str(const std::vector<ggml_backend_dev_t> & devices) {
     std::string result;
     for (size_t i = 0; i < devices.size(); i++) {
diff --git a/common/speculative.h b/common/speculative.h
index 22505891f7..90c31b2c9e 100644
--- a/common/speculative.h
+++ b/common/speculative.h
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@
 
 struct common_speculative;
 
+// return the default speculative decoding configuration
+common_params_speculative common_speculative_default_config();
+
 // comma separated list the provided types
 std::string common_speculative_type_name_str(const std::vector<enum common_speculative_type> & types);
 
diff --git a/docs/preset.md b/docs/preset.md
index 3d85467e87..0540a01834 100644
--- a/docs/preset.md
+++ b/docs/preset.md
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ ctx-size             = 0
 mmap                 = 1
 kv-unified           = 1
 parallel             = 4
-spec-default         = 1
+no-spec-type         = ngram-mod
 
 [Qwen3.5-4B]
 hf                   = unsloth/Qwen3.5-4B-GGUF:Q4_K_M
@@ -52,6 +52,9 @@ chat-template-kwargs = {"reasoning_effort": "high"}
 
 The preset will be loaded similarly to the `--models-preset` option. Therefore, you can also override certain params via CLI arguments:
 
+> [!NOTE]
+> A default speculative decoding is enabled by default for the server and CLI.
+
 ```sh
 # Force temp = 0.1, overriding the preset value
 llama-cli -hf username/my-preset --temp 0.1
diff --git a/docs/speculative.md b/docs/speculative.md
index ffb1e34c7f..d961156bee 100644
--- a/docs/speculative.md
+++ b/docs/speculative.md
@@ -226,10 +226,12 @@ Use exactly one of these options:
 ```
 --spec-type [none|draft-simple|draft-eagle3|draft-dflash|draft-dspark|draft-mtp|ngram-cache|ngram-simple|ngram-map-k|ngram-map-k4v|ngram-mod]
                                         comma-separated list of types of speculative decoding to use
-                                        (default: none)
+                                        (default: server/CLI default config, none for other tools)
                                         (env: LLAMA_ARG_SPEC_TYPE)
---spec-default                          use default speculative decoding config
-                                        (enables ngram-mod)
+--no-spec-type [none|draft-simple|draft-eagle3|draft-dflash|draft-dspark|draft-mtp|ngram-cache|ngram-simple|ngram-map-k|ngram-map-k4v|ngram-mod]
+                                        comma-separated list of types of speculative decoding to remove
+                                        (env: LLAMA_ARG_NO_SPEC_TYPE)
+--spec-default                          DEPRECATED: default speculative decoding is enabled by default
 ```
 
 ### Draft Model Parameters
diff --git a/tests/test-arg-parser.cpp b/tests/test-arg-parser.cpp
index e0907631ab..e340ea69fc 100644
--- a/tests/test-arg-parser.cpp
+++ b/tests/test-arg-parser.cpp
@@ -254,6 +254,117 @@ static void test(void) {
     assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SPECULATIVE));
     assert(params.speculative.draft.n_max == 123);
 
+    {
+        const auto types_ngram_mod = std::vector<enum common_speculative_type>{ COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NGRAM_MOD };
+        const auto types_draft_mtp = std::vector<enum common_speculative_type>{ COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_DRAFT_MTP };
+        const auto types_none      = std::vector<enum common_speculative_type>{ COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE };
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_ngram_mod);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--no-spec-type", "ngram-mod"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_none);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--spec-type", "draft-mtp"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == std::vector<enum common_speculative_type>({ COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NGRAM_MOD, COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_DRAFT_MTP }));
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--spec-type", "ngram-mod"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_ngram_mod);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--spec-type", "ngram-mod,draft-mtp"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == std::vector<enum common_speculative_type>({ COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NGRAM_MOD, COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_DRAFT_MTP }));
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--no-spec-type", "ngram-mod", "--spec-type", "draft-mtp"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_draft_mtp);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--spec-type", "draft-mtp", "--no-spec-type", "ngram-mod"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_draft_mtp);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--no-spec-type", "draft-mtp"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_ngram_mod);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--no-spec-type", "ngram-mod", "--spec-type", "ngram-mod"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_ngram_mod);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--no-spec-type", "ngram-mod", "--spec-type", "ngram-mod,draft-mtp"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == std::vector<enum common_speculative_type>({ COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NGRAM_MOD, COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_DRAFT_MTP }));
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--spec-type", "none"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_none);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--no-spec-type", "none"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_none);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--spec-type", "none", "--spec-type", "draft-mtp"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_draft_mtp);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--spec-default"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_ngram_mod);
+        }
+
+        {
+            common_params spec_params;
+            argv = {"binary_name", "--spec-default", "--no-spec-type", "ngram-mod"};
+            assert(true == common_params_parse(argv.size(), list_str_to_char(argv).data(), spec_params, LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER));
+            assert(spec_params.speculative.types == types_none);
+        }
+    }
+
     {
         common_params synth_params;
         argv = {"binary_name", "--spec-synth-len", "3.4"};
diff --git a/tests/test-model-resolution.cpp b/tests/test-model-resolution.cpp
index 5191e77514..249a2d65e2 100644
--- a/tests/test-model-resolution.cpp
+++ b/tests/test-model-resolution.cpp
@@ -453,6 +453,13 @@ static void test_task_assembly() {
         // -hfd on a repo without sidecars keeps resolving a full model as draft
         common_params params;
         assemble({"server", "-hf", "test/main:Q8_0", "-hfd", "test/small"}, params);
+        REQUIRE(params.speculative.types == std::vector<enum common_speculative_type>{COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NGRAM_MOD});
+        REQUIRE_EQ(params.speculative.draft.mparams.path, cached("test/small", "draft-model-Q4_K_M.gguf"));
+    }
+    {
+        // --no-spec-type removes the default speculative type and keeps the fallback draft resolution
+        common_params params;
+        assemble({"server", "-hf", "test/main:Q8_0", "-hfd", "test/small", "--no-spec-type", "ngram-mod"}, params);
         REQUIRE(params.speculative.types == std::vector<enum common_speculative_type>{COMMON_SPECULATIVE_TYPE_NONE});
         REQUIRE_EQ(params.speculative.draft.mparams.path, cached("test/small", "draft-model-Q4_K_M.gguf"));
     }
diff --git a/tools/cli/README.md b/tools/cli/README.md
index b874d02073..fcf95c36ce 100644
--- a/tools/cli/README.md
+++ b/tools/cli/README.md
@@ -209,7 +209,8 @@
 | `--spec-draft-device, -devd, --device-draft <dev1,dev2,..>` | comma-separated list of devices to use for offloading the draft model (none = don't offload)<br/>use --list-devices to see a list of available devices |
 | `--spec-draft-ngl, -ngld, --gpu-layers-draft, --n-gpu-layers-draft N` | max. number of draft model layers to store in VRAM, either an exact number, 'auto', or 'all' (default: auto)<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_N_GPU_LAYERS_DRAFT) |
 | `--spec-draft-model, -md, --model-draft FNAME` | draft model for speculative decoding (default: unused)<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_SPEC_DRAFT_MODEL) |
-| `--spec-type none,draft-simple,draft-eagle3,draft-mtp,draft-dflash,draft-dspark,ngram-simple,ngram-map-k,ngram-map-k4v,ngram-mod,ngram-cache` | comma-separated list of types of speculative decoding to use (default: none)<br/><br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_SPEC_TYPE) |
+| `--spec-type none,draft-simple,draft-eagle3,draft-mtp,draft-dflash,draft-dspark,ngram-simple,ngram-map-k,ngram-map-k4v,ngram-mod,ngram-cache` | comma-separated list of types of speculative decoding to use (default: default speculative config)<br/><br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_SPEC_TYPE) |
+| `--no-spec-type none,draft-simple,draft-eagle3,draft-mtp,draft-dflash,draft-dspark,ngram-simple,ngram-map-k,ngram-map-k4v,ngram-mod,ngram-cache` | comma-separated list of types of speculative decoding to remove<br/><br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_NO_SPEC_TYPE) |
 | `--spec-ngram-mod-n-min N` | minimum number of ngram tokens to use for ngram-based speculative decoding (default: 48) |
 | `--spec-ngram-mod-n-max N` | maximum number of ngram tokens to use for ngram-based speculative decoding (default: 64) |
 | `--spec-ngram-mod-n-match N` | ngram-mod lookup length (default: 24) |
@@ -228,6 +229,6 @@
 | `--gpt-oss-120b-default` | use gpt-oss-120b (note: can download weights from the internet) |
 | `--vision-gemma-4b-default` | use Gemma 3 4B QAT (note: can download weights from the internet) |
 | `--vision-gemma-12b-default` | use Gemma 3 12B QAT (note: can download weights from the internet) |
-| `--spec-default` | enable default speculative decoding config |
+| `--spec-default` | DEPRECATED: default speculative decoding is enabled by default |
 
 <!-- HELP_END -->
diff --git a/tools/server/README.md b/tools/server/README.md
index c6e907ba91..a973057994 100644
--- a/tools/server/README.md
+++ b/tools/server/README.md
@@ -270,7 +270,8 @@ For the full list of features, please refer to [server's changelog](https://gith
 | `--spec-draft-device, -devd, --device-draft <dev1,dev2,..>` | comma-separated list of devices to use for offloading the draft model (none = don't offload)<br/>use --list-devices to see a list of available devices |
 | `--spec-draft-ngl, -ngld, --gpu-layers-draft, --n-gpu-layers-draft N` | max. number of draft model layers to store in VRAM, either an exact number, 'auto', or 'all' (default: auto)<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_N_GPU_LAYERS_DRAFT) |
 | `--spec-draft-model, -md, --model-draft FNAME` | draft model for speculative decoding (default: unused)<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_SPEC_DRAFT_MODEL) |
-| `--spec-type none,draft-simple,draft-eagle3,draft-mtp,draft-dflash,draft-dspark,ngram-simple,ngram-map-k,ngram-map-k4v,ngram-mod,ngram-cache` | comma-separated list of types of speculative decoding to use (default: none)<br/><br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_SPEC_TYPE) |
+| `--spec-type none,draft-simple,draft-eagle3,draft-mtp,draft-dflash,draft-dspark,ngram-simple,ngram-map-k,ngram-map-k4v,ngram-mod,ngram-cache` | comma-separated list of types of speculative decoding to use (default: default speculative config)<br/><br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_SPEC_TYPE) |
+| `--no-spec-type none,draft-simple,draft-eagle3,draft-mtp,draft-dflash,draft-dspark,ngram-simple,ngram-map-k,ngram-map-k4v,ngram-mod,ngram-cache` | comma-separated list of types of speculative decoding to remove<br/><br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_NO_SPEC_TYPE) |
 | `--spec-ngram-mod-n-min N` | minimum number of ngram tokens to use for ngram-based speculative decoding (default: 48) |
 | `--spec-ngram-mod-n-max N` | maximum number of ngram tokens to use for ngram-based speculative decoding (default: 64) |
 | `--spec-ngram-mod-n-match N` | ngram-mod lookup length (default: 24) |
@@ -299,7 +300,7 @@ For the full list of features, please refer to [server's changelog](https://gith
 | `--gpt-oss-120b-default` | use gpt-oss-120b (note: can download weights from the internet) |
 | `--vision-gemma-4b-default` | use Gemma 3 4B QAT (note: can download weights from the internet) |
 | `--vision-gemma-12b-default` | use Gemma 3 12B QAT (note: can download weights from the internet) |
-| `--spec-default` | enable default speculative decoding config |
+| `--spec-default` | DEPRECATED: default speculative decoding is enabled by default |
 
 <!-- HELP_END -->