diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9e3bd14e5..efe376bb7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+# 2018-10-05
+
+## Presence tracking made configurable
+
+The playbook can now enable/disable user presence-status tracking in Synapse, through the playbook's `matrix_synapse_use_presence` variable (having a default value of `true` - enabled).
+
+If users participate in large rooms with many other servers, disabling presence will decrease server load significantly.
+
+
 # 2018-09-27
 
 ## Synapse Cache Factor made configurable
diff --git a/roles/matrix-server/defaults/main.yml b/roles/matrix-server/defaults/main.yml
index ab19be38e..a154b4248 100644
--- a/roles/matrix-server/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/roles/matrix-server/defaults/main.yml
@@ -68,6 +68,11 @@ matrix_synapse_rc_message_burst_count: 10.0
 # (things like number of users, number of messages sent, uptime, load, etc.)
 matrix_synapse_report_stats: false
 
+# Controls whether the Matrix server will track presence status (online, offline, unavailable) for users.
+# If users participate in large rooms with many other servers,
+# disabling this will decrease server load significantly.
+matrix_synapse_use_presence: true
+
 # Controls password-peppering for Matrix Synapse. Not to be changed after initial setup.
 matrix_synapse_password_config_pepper: ""
 
diff --git a/roles/matrix-server/templates/synapse/homeserver.yaml.j2 b/roles/matrix-server/templates/synapse/homeserver.yaml.j2
index 279fe1aad..5bbd86bb2 100644
--- a/roles/matrix-server/templates/synapse/homeserver.yaml.j2
+++ b/roles/matrix-server/templates/synapse/homeserver.yaml.j2
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ public_baseurl: https://{{ hostname_matrix }}/
 soft_file_limit: 0
 
 # Set to false to disable presence tracking on this homeserver.
-use_presence: true
+use_presence: {{ matrix_synapse_use_presence|to_yaml }}
 
 # The GC threshold parameters to pass to `gc.set_threshold`, if defined
 # gc_thresholds: [700, 10, 10]