diff --git a/src/API.jl b/src/API.jl
index 525758ebd5..c1505e2d33 100644
--- a/src/API.jl
+++ b/src/API.jl
@@ -1009,6 +1009,7 @@ function precompile(ctx::Context; internal_call::Bool=false, strict::Bool=false,
     # Windows sometimes hits a ReadOnlyMemoryError, so we halve the default number of tasks. Issue #2323
     # TODO: Investigate why this happens in windows and restore the full task limit
     default_num_tasks = Sys.iswindows() ? div(Sys.CPU_THREADS::Int, 2) + 1 : Sys.CPU_THREADS::Int + 1
+    default_num_tasks = min(default_num_tasks, 16) # limit for better stability on shared resource systems
 
     num_tasks = parse(Int, get(ENV, "JULIA_NUM_PRECOMPILE_TASKS", string(default_num_tasks)))
     parallel_limiter = Base.Semaphore(num_tasks)
diff --git a/src/Pkg.jl b/src/Pkg.jl
index a5fc85b4e5..e43f015bb3 100644
--- a/src/Pkg.jl
+++ b/src/Pkg.jl
@@ -144,7 +144,8 @@ Precompile all the dependencies of the project in parallel.
 !!! note
     This method is called automatically after any Pkg action that changes the manifest.
     Any packages that have previously errored during precompilation won't be retried in auto mode
-    until they have changed. To disable automatic precompilation set `ENV["JULIA_PKG_PRECOMPILE_AUTO"]=0`
+    until they have changed. To disable automatic precompilation set `ENV["JULIA_PKG_PRECOMPILE_AUTO"]=0`.
+    To manually control the number of tasks used set `ENV["JULIA_NUM_PRECOMPILE_TASKS"]`.
 
 !!! compat "Julia 1.3"
     This function requires at least Julia 1.3. On earlier versions
diff --git a/src/REPLMode/command_declarations.jl b/src/REPLMode/command_declarations.jl
index 4585b0244e..0b4175799b 100644
--- a/src/REPLMode/command_declarations.jl
+++ b/src/REPLMode/command_declarations.jl
@@ -336,7 +336,8 @@ not all manifest dependencies may be loaded by the top-level dependencies on the
 
 This method is called automatically after any Pkg action that changes the manifest.
 Any packages that have previously errored during precompilation won't be retried in auto mode
-until they have changed. To disable automatic precompilation set the environment variable `JULIA_PKG_PRECOMPILE_AUTO=0`
+until they have changed. To disable automatic precompilation set the environment variable `JULIA_PKG_PRECOMPILE_AUTO=0`.
+To manually control the number of tasks used set the environment variable `JULIA_NUM_PRECOMPILE_TASKS`.
 """,
 ],
 PSA[:name => "status",