diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index 7a4fb6f238..958d0e344a 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@
 * FATURE: vmagent: accept `scrape_offset` option at `scrape_config`. This option may be useful when scrapes must start at the specified offset of every scrape interval. See [these docs](https://victoriametrics.github.io/vmagent.html#troubleshooting) for details.
 * FEATURE: vmauth: allow using regexp paths in `url_map`. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/1112) for details.
 
-
 * BUGFIX: vmagent: prevent from high CPU usage bug during failing scrapes with small `scrape_timeout` (less than a few seconds).
-* BUGFIX: vmagent: reduce memory usage when Kubernetes service discovery is used in big number of distinct jobs by sharing the cache. See https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/1113
+* BUGFIX: vmagent: reduce memory usage when Kubernetes service discovery is used in big number of distinct scrape config jobs by sharing Kubernetes object cache. See https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/1113
+* BUGFIX: vmagent: apply `sample_limit` only after `metric_relabel_configs` are applied as Prometheus does. Previously the `sample_limit` was applied before metrics relabeling.
 * BUGFUX: avoid `duplicate time series` error if `prometheus_buckets()` covers a time range with distinct set of buckets.
 * BUGFIX: prevent exponent overflow when processing extremely small values close to zero such as `2.964393875E-314`. See https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/1114
 
diff --git a/lib/promscrape/scrapework.go b/lib/promscrape/scrapework.go
index e5e28ff42d..003b0348a9 100644
--- a/lib/promscrape/scrapework.go
+++ b/lib/promscrape/scrapework.go
@@ -290,27 +290,15 @@ func (sw *scrapeWork) scrapeInternal(scrapeTimestamp, realTimestamp int64) error
 	srcRows := wc.rows.Rows
 	samplesScraped := len(srcRows)
 	scrapedSamples.Update(float64(samplesScraped))
-	if sw.Config.SampleLimit > 0 && samplesScraped > sw.Config.SampleLimit {
-		srcRows = srcRows[:0]
+	for i := range srcRows {
+		sw.addRowToTimeseries(wc, &srcRows[i], scrapeTimestamp, true)
+	}
+	samplesPostRelabeling := len(wc.writeRequest.Timeseries)
+	if sw.Config.SampleLimit > 0 && samplesPostRelabeling > sw.Config.SampleLimit {
+		wc.resetNoRows()
 		up = 0
 		scrapesSkippedBySampleLimit.Inc()
 	}
-	samplesPostRelabeling := 0
-	for i := range srcRows {
-		sw.addRowToTimeseries(wc, &srcRows[i], scrapeTimestamp, true)
-		if len(wc.labels) > 40000 {
-			// Limit the maximum size of wc.writeRequest.
-			// This should reduce memory usage when scraping targets with millions of metrics and/or labels.
-			// For example, when scraping /federate handler from Prometheus - see https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/federation/
-			samplesPostRelabeling += len(wc.writeRequest.Timeseries)
-			sw.updateSeriesAdded(wc)
-			startTime := time.Now()
-			sw.PushData(&wc.writeRequest)
-			pushDataDuration.UpdateDuration(startTime)
-			wc.resetNoRows()
-		}
-	}
-	samplesPostRelabeling += len(wc.writeRequest.Timeseries)
 	sw.updateSeriesAdded(wc)
 	seriesAdded := sw.finalizeSeriesAdded(samplesPostRelabeling)
 	sw.addAutoTimeseries(wc, "up", float64(up), scrapeTimestamp)
diff --git a/lib/promscrape/scrapework_test.go b/lib/promscrape/scrapework_test.go
index 74b6f67e8e..79e6cb6cea 100644
--- a/lib/promscrape/scrapework_test.go
+++ b/lib/promscrape/scrapework_test.go
@@ -332,7 +332,7 @@ func TestScrapeWorkScrapeInternalSuccess(t *testing.T) {
 		up 0 123
 		scrape_samples_scraped 2 123
 		scrape_duration_seconds 0 123
-		scrape_samples_post_metric_relabeling 0 123
+		scrape_samples_post_metric_relabeling 2 123
 		scrape_series_added 0 123
 	`)
 }