diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
index dec585ff65..78be98bd34 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
@@ -283,6 +283,52 @@ pub(crate) enum SpawnMode {
     Lazy,
 }
 
+/// A notifier that can be used to trigger compaction shared by all timelines of a tenant.
+///
+/// It is used to notify the compaction loop that there is work to be done. It is also used
+/// to balance the load of compaction between timelines. If there are pending L0 compaction in
+/// one of the timeline, it could preempt long-running compaction jobs (e.g., image compaction)
+/// on other timelines.
+pub struct CompactionNotifier {
+    notify: Notify,
+    l0_count: std::sync::Mutex<HashMap<TimelineId, usize>>,
+}
+
+impl CompactionNotifier {
+    pub fn new() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            notify: Notify::new(),
+            l0_count: std::sync::Mutex::new(HashMap::new()),
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn notify_one(&self) {
+        self.notify.notify_one();
+    }
+
+    pub fn notified(&self) -> tokio::sync::futures::Notified<'_> {
+        self.notify.notified()
+    }
+
+    pub fn on_l0_update(&self, timeline_id: TimelineId, l0_count: usize) {
+        let mut guard = self.l0_count.lock().unwrap();
+        guard.insert(timeline_id, l0_count);
+    }
+
+    pub fn on_shutdown(&self, timeline_id: TimelineId) {
+        let mut guard = self.l0_count.lock().unwrap();
+        guard.remove(&timeline_id);
+    }
+
+    pub fn get_max_l0_count(&self) -> Option<(usize, TimelineId)> {
+        let guard = self.l0_count.lock().unwrap();
+        guard
+            .iter()
+            .max_by_key(|(_, count)| *count)
+            .map(|(timeline_id, count)| (*count, *timeline_id))
+    }
+}
+
 ///
 /// Tenant consists of multiple timelines. Keep them in a hash table.
 ///
@@ -358,7 +404,7 @@ pub struct Tenant {
     compaction_circuit_breaker: std::sync::Mutex<CircuitBreaker>,
 
     /// Signals the tenant compaction loop that there is L0 compaction work to be done.
-    pub(crate) l0_compaction_trigger: Arc<Notify>,
+    pub(crate) l0_compaction_trigger: Arc<CompactionNotifier>,
 
     /// Scheduled gc-compaction tasks.
     scheduled_compaction_tasks: std::sync::Mutex<HashMap<TimelineId, Arc<GcCompactionQueue>>>,
@@ -4242,7 +4288,7 @@ impl Tenant {
                 // use an extremely long backoff.
                 Some(Duration::from_secs(3600 * 24)),
             )),
-            l0_compaction_trigger: Arc::new(Notify::new()),
+            l0_compaction_trigger: Arc::new(CompactionNotifier::new()),
             scheduled_compaction_tasks: Mutex::new(Default::default()),
             activate_now_sem: tokio::sync::Semaphore::new(0),
             attach_wal_lag_cooldown: Arc::new(std::sync::OnceLock::new()),
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
index 782b7d88b0..8f37982b24 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ use serde_with::serde_as;
 use storage_broker::BrokerClientChannel;
 use tokio::runtime::Handle;
 use tokio::sync::mpsc::Sender;
-use tokio::sync::{oneshot, watch, Notify};
+use tokio::sync::{oneshot, watch};
 use tokio_util::sync::CancellationToken;
 use tracing::*;
 use utils::critical;
@@ -151,7 +151,8 @@ use super::{
     MaybeOffloaded,
 };
 use super::{
-    debug_assert_current_span_has_tenant_and_timeline_id, AttachedTenantConf, HeatMapTimeline,
+    debug_assert_current_span_has_tenant_and_timeline_id, AttachedTenantConf, CompactionNotifier,
+    HeatMapTimeline,
 };
 use super::{remote_timeline_client::index::IndexPart, storage_layer::LayerFringe};
 use super::{
@@ -224,7 +225,7 @@ pub struct TimelineResources {
     pub remote_client: RemoteTimelineClient,
     pub pagestream_throttle: Arc<crate::tenant::throttle::Throttle>,
     pub pagestream_throttle_metrics: Arc<crate::metrics::tenant_throttling::Pagestream>,
-    pub l0_compaction_trigger: Arc<Notify>,
+    pub l0_compaction_trigger: Arc<CompactionNotifier>,
     pub l0_flush_global_state: l0_flush::L0FlushGlobalState,
 }
 
@@ -428,7 +429,7 @@ pub struct Timeline {
     compaction_failed: AtomicBool,
 
     /// Notifies the tenant compaction loop that there is pending L0 compaction work.
-    l0_compaction_trigger: Arc<Notify>,
+    l0_compaction_trigger: Arc<CompactionNotifier>,
 
     /// Make sure we only have one running gc at a time.
     ///
@@ -1965,6 +1966,8 @@ impl Timeline {
         // ... and inform any waiters for newer LSNs that there won't be any.
         self.last_record_lsn.shutdown();
 
+        self.l0_compaction_trigger.on_shutdown(self.timeline_id);
+
         if let ShutdownMode::FreezeAndFlush = mode {
             let do_flush = if let Some((open, frozen)) = self
                 .layers
@@ -4119,6 +4122,8 @@ impl Timeline {
                 if l0_count >= self.get_compaction_threshold() {
                     self.l0_compaction_trigger.notify_one();
                 }
+                self.l0_compaction_trigger
+                    .on_l0_update(self.timeline_id, l0_count);
 
                 // Delay the next flush to backpressure if compaction can't keep up. We delay by the
                 // flush duration such that the flush takes 2x as long. This is propagated up to WAL
@@ -5067,20 +5072,22 @@ impl Timeline {
                     // image layer generation taking too long time and blocking L0 compaction. So in this
                     // mode, we also inspect the current number of L0 layers and skip image layer generation
                     // if there are too many of them.
-                    let num_of_l0_layers = {
-                        let layers = self.layers.read().await;
-                        layers.layer_map()?.level0_deltas().len()
-                    };
-                    let image_preempt_threshold = self.get_image_creation_preempt_threshold()
-                        * self.get_compaction_threshold();
-                    if image_preempt_threshold != 0 && num_of_l0_layers >= image_preempt_threshold {
-                        tracing::info!(
-                        "preempt image layer generation at {lsn} when processing partition {}..{}: too many L0 layers {}",
-                        partition.start().unwrap(), partition.end().unwrap(), num_of_l0_layers
-                    );
-                        last_partition_processed = Some(partition.clone());
-                        all_generated = false;
-                        break;
+                    if let Some((max_num_of_l0_layers, timeline_id)) =
+                        self.l0_compaction_trigger.get_max_l0_count()
+                    {
+                        let image_preempt_threshold = self.get_image_creation_preempt_threshold()
+                            * self.get_compaction_threshold();
+                        if image_preempt_threshold != 0
+                            && max_num_of_l0_layers >= image_preempt_threshold
+                        {
+                            tracing::info!(
+                                "preempt image layer generation at {lsn} when processing partition {}..{}: too many L0 layers {} on timeline {}",
+                                partition.start().unwrap(), partition.end().unwrap(), max_num_of_l0_layers, timeline_id
+                            );
+                            last_partition_processed = Some(partition.clone());
+                            all_generated = false;
+                            break;
+                        }
                     }
                 }
             }
@@ -5459,8 +5466,13 @@ impl Timeline {
         self.remote_client
             .schedule_compaction_update(&remove_layers, new_deltas)?;
 
+        let l0_count = guard.layer_map()?.level0_deltas().len();
+
         drop_wlock(guard);
 
+        self.l0_compaction_trigger
+            .on_l0_update(self.timeline_id, l0_count);
+
         Ok(())
     }