diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index 3b3fb45ff6..fa1b398ca3 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ The following tip changes can be tested by building VictoriaMetrics components f
 **Update note 2:** The `vm_concurrent_addrows_current` and `vm_concurrent_addrows_capacity` metrics [exported](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html#monitoring) by `vmstorage` are replaced with `vm_concurrent_insert_current` and `vm_concurrent_insert_capacity` metrics in order to be consistent with the corresponding metrics exported by `vminsert`. Please update queries in dahsboards and alerting rules with new metric names if old metric names are used there.
 
 * FEATURE: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): add support for aggregation of incoming [samples](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#raw-samples) by time and by labels. See [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/stream-aggregation.html) and [this feature request](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/3460).
+* FEATURE: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): reduce memory usage when scraping big number of targets without the need to enable [stream parsing mode](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html#stream-parsing-mode).
 * FEATURE: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): add support for Prometheus-compatible target discovery for [HashiCorp Nomad](https://www.nomadproject.io/) services via [nomad_sd_configs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/sd_configs.html#nomad_sd_configs). See [this feature request](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/3367). Thanks to @mr-karan for [the implementation](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/pull/3549).
 * FEATURE: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): automatically pre-fetch `metric_relabel_configs` and the target labels when clicking on the `debug metrics relabeling` link at the `http://vmagent:8429/targets` page at the particular target. See [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html#relabel-debug).
 * FEATURE: [vmui](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#vmui): add ability to explore metrics exported by a particular `job` / `instance`. See [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#metrics-explorer) and [this feature request](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/3386).
diff --git a/lib/promscrape/scrapework.go b/lib/promscrape/scrapework.go
index e18855e8bd..84d378f379 100644
--- a/lib/promscrape/scrapework.go
+++ b/lib/promscrape/scrapework.go
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ package promscrape
 import (
 	"flag"
 	"fmt"
-	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/lib/auth"
 	"io"
 	"math"
 	"math/bits"
@@ -11,8 +10,10 @@ import (
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/lib/auth"
 	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/lib/bloomfilter"
 	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/lib/bytesutil"
+	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/lib/cgroup"
 	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/lib/decimal"
 	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/lib/encoding"
 	"github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/lib/fasttime"
@@ -416,6 +417,24 @@ func (sw *scrapeWork) scrapeInternal(scrapeTimestamp, realTimestamp int64) error
 	body := leveledbytebufferpool.Get(sw.prevBodyLen)
 	var err error
 	body.B, err = sw.ReadData(body.B[:0])
+	releaseBody, err := sw.processScrapedData(scrapeTimestamp, realTimestamp, body, err)
+	if releaseBody {
+		leveledbytebufferpool.Put(body)
+	}
+	return err
+}
+
+var concurrencyLimitCh = make(chan struct{}, 2*cgroup.AvailableCPUs())
+
+func (sw *scrapeWork) processScrapedData(scrapeTimestamp, realTimestamp int64, body *bytesutil.ByteBuffer, err error) (bool, error) {
+	// This function is CPU-bound, while it may allocate big amounts of memory.
+	// That's why it is a good idea to limit the number of concurrent calls to this function
+	// in order to limit memory usage under high load without sacrificing the performance.
+	concurrencyLimitCh <- struct{}{}
+	defer func() {
+		<-concurrencyLimitCh
+	}()
+
 	endTimestamp := time.Now().UnixNano() / 1e6
 	duration := float64(endTimestamp-realTimestamp) / 1e3
 	scrapeDuration.Update(duration)
@@ -489,13 +508,8 @@ func (sw *scrapeWork) scrapeInternal(scrapeTimestamp, realTimestamp int64) error
 		sw.storeLastScrape(body.B)
 	}
 	sw.finalizeLastScrape()
-	if !mustSwitchToStreamParse {
-		// Return body to the pool only if its size is smaller than -promscrape.minResponseSizeForStreamParse
-		// This should reduce memory usage when scraping targets which return big responses.
-		leveledbytebufferpool.Put(body)
-	}
 	tsmGlobal.Update(sw, up == 1, realTimestamp, int64(duration*1000), samplesScraped, err)
-	return err
+	return !mustSwitchToStreamParse, err
 }
 
 func (sw *scrapeWork) pushData(at *auth.Token, wr *prompbmarshal.WriteRequest) {