diff --git a/src/repo/sqlite.rs b/src/repo/sqlite.rs
index 5964af7..c599623 100644
--- a/src/repo/sqlite.rs
+++ b/src/repo/sqlite.rs
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ use r2d2_sqlite::SqliteConnectionManager;
 use rusqlite::params;
 use rusqlite::types::ToSql;
 use rusqlite::OpenFlags;
-use tokio::sync::{Mutex, MutexGuard};
+use tokio::sync::{Mutex, MutexGuard, Semaphore};
 use std::fmt::Write as _;
 use std::path::Path;
 use std::sync::Arc;
@@ -48,6 +48,8 @@ pub struct SqliteRepo {
     checkpoint_in_progress: Arc<Mutex<u64>>,
     /// Flag to limit writer concurrency
     write_in_progress: Arc<Mutex<u64>>,
+    /// Semaphore for readers to acquire blocking threads
+    reader_threads_ready: Arc<Semaphore>,
 }
 
 impl SqliteRepo {
@@ -83,7 +85,10 @@ impl SqliteRepo {
         // SQLite can only effectively write single threaded, so don't
         // block multiple worker threads unnecessarily.
         let write_in_progress = Arc::new(Mutex::new(0));
-
+        // configure the number of worker threads that can be spawned
+        // to match the number of database reader connections.
+        let max_conn = settings.database.max_conn as usize;
+        let reader_threads_ready = Arc::new(Semaphore::new(max_conn));
         SqliteRepo {
             metrics,
             read_pool,
@@ -91,6 +96,7 @@ impl SqliteRepo {
             maint_pool,
             checkpoint_in_progress,
             write_in_progress,
+            reader_threads_ready,
         }
     }
 
@@ -309,6 +315,11 @@ impl NostrRepo for SqliteRepo {
         mut abandon_query_rx: tokio::sync::oneshot::Receiver<()>,
     ) -> Result<()> {
         let pre_spawn_start = Instant::now();
+        // if we let every request spawn a thread, we'll exhaust the
+        // thread pool waiting for queries to finish under high load.
+        // Instead, don't bother spawning threads when they will just
+        // block on a database connection.
+        let sem = self.reader_threads_ready.clone().acquire_owned().await.unwrap();
         let self=self.clone();
         let metrics=self.metrics.clone();
         task::spawn_blocking(move || {
@@ -437,6 +448,7 @@ impl NostrRepo for SqliteRepo {
                     warn!("Could not get a database connection for querying");
                 }
             }
+            drop(sem); // new query can begin
             debug!(
                 "query completed in {:?} (cid: {}, sub: {:?}, db_time: {:?}, rows: {})",
                 pre_spawn_start.elapsed(),
@@ -896,7 +908,7 @@ pub fn build_pool(
 
 /// Perform database WAL checkpoint on a regular basis
 pub async fn db_checkpoint_task(pool: SqlitePool, frequency: Duration, checkpoint_in_progress: Arc<Mutex<u64>>) -> Result<()> {
-
+    // TODO; use acquire_many on the reader semaphore to stop them from interrupting this.
     tokio::task::spawn(async move {
         // WAL size in pages.
         let mut current_wal_size = 0;