diff --git a/swh/lister/bitbucket/lister.py b/swh/lister/bitbucket/lister.py
--- a/swh/lister/bitbucket/lister.py
+++ b/swh/lister/bitbucket/lister.py
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@
         if per_page != DEFAULT_BITBUCKET_PAGE:
             self.PATH_TEMPLATE = '%s&pagelen=%s' % (
                 self.PATH_TEMPLATE, per_page)
+        # to stay consistent with prior behavior (20 * 10 repositories then)
+        self.flush_packet_db = int(
+            (self.flush_packet_db * DEFAULT_BITBUCKET_PAGE) / per_page)
 
     def get_model_from_repo(self, repo):
         return {
diff --git a/swh/lister/core/indexing_lister.py b/swh/lister/core/indexing_lister.py
--- a/swh/lister/core/indexing_lister.py
+++ b/swh/lister/core/indexing_lister.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2015-2017 the Software Heritage developers
+# Copyright (C) 2015-2019 the Software Heritage developers
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 
 class IndexingLister(ListerBase):
+    flush_packet_db = 20
     default_min_bound = ''
 
     """Lister* intermediate class for any service that follows the pattern:
@@ -231,7 +232,7 @@
                 yield i
 
         for i in ingest_indexes():
-            if (i % 20) == 0:
+            if (i % self.flush_packet_db) == 0:
                 logger.debug('Flushing updates at index %s', i)
                 self.db_session.commit()
                 self.db_session = self.mk_session()