diff --git a/sessionctx/variable/session.go b/sessionctx/variable/session.go
index 815f42cc03ef3..97597997b36f5 100644
--- a/sessionctx/variable/session.go
+++ b/sessionctx/variable/session.go
@@ -1063,6 +1063,7 @@ func NewSessionVars() *SessionVars {
 		AnalyzeVersion:              DefTiDBAnalyzeVersion,
 		EnableIndexMergeJoin:        DefTiDBEnableIndexMergeJoin,
 		AllowFallbackToTiKV:         make(map[kv.StoreType]struct{}),
+		CTEMaxRecursionDepth:        DefCTEMaxRecursionDepth,
 	}
 	vars.KVVars = tikvstore.NewVariables(&vars.Killed)
 	vars.Concurrency = Concurrency{
diff --git a/sessionctx/variable/varsutil_test.go b/sessionctx/variable/varsutil_test.go
index a96897140b9b4..90507f36539d6 100644
--- a/sessionctx/variable/varsutil_test.go
+++ b/sessionctx/variable/varsutil_test.go
@@ -105,6 +105,7 @@ func (s *testVarsutilSuite) TestNewSessionVars(c *C) {
 	c.Assert(vars.ShardAllocateStep, Equals, int64(DefTiDBShardAllocateStep))
 	c.Assert(vars.EnableChangeColumnType, Equals, DefTiDBChangeColumnType)
 	c.Assert(vars.AnalyzeVersion, Equals, DefTiDBAnalyzeVersion)
+	c.Assert(vars.CTEMaxRecursionDepth, Equals, DefCTEMaxRecursionDepth)
 
 	assertFieldsGreaterThanZero(c, reflect.ValueOf(vars.MemQuota))
 	assertFieldsGreaterThanZero(c, reflect.ValueOf(vars.BatchSize))