diff --git a/.changesets/fix_spawn_blocking_parser.md b/.changesets/fix_spawn_blocking_parser.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0fd442df94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changesets/fix_spawn_blocking_parser.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+### use spawn_blocking for query parsing & validation ([PR #5235](https://github.com/apollographql/router/pull/5235))
+
+Moves query parsing and validation in a tokio blocking task to prevent all executor threads from blocking on large queries.
+
+By [@xuorig](https://github.com/xuorig) in https://github.com/apollographql/router/pull/5235
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/apollo-router/src/query_planner/caching_query_planner.rs b/apollo-router/src/query_planner/caching_query_planner.rs
index ff28cbc4c5..a409df3756 100644
--- a/apollo-router/src/query_planner/caching_query_planner.rs
+++ b/apollo-router/src/query_planner/caching_query_planner.rs
@@ -269,7 +269,10 @@ where
         } in all_cache_keys
         {
             let context = Context::new();
-            let doc = match query_analysis.parse_document(&query, operation.as_deref()) {
+            let doc = match query_analysis
+                .parse_document(&query, operation.as_deref())
+                .await
+            {
                 Ok(doc) => doc,
                 Err(_) => continue,
             };
@@ -310,7 +313,10 @@ where
                 })
                 .await;
             if entry.is_first() {
-                let doc = match query_analysis.parse_document(&query, operation.as_deref()) {
+                let doc = match query_analysis
+                    .parse_document(&query, operation.as_deref())
+                    .await
+                {
                     Ok(doc) => doc,
                     Err(error) => {
                         let e = Arc::new(QueryPlannerError::SpecError(error));
diff --git a/apollo-router/src/services/layers/query_analysis.rs b/apollo-router/src/services/layers/query_analysis.rs
index 4beb5a1e21..71eae898e7 100644
--- a/apollo-router/src/services/layers/query_analysis.rs
+++ b/apollo-router/src/services/layers/query_analysis.rs
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ use http::StatusCode;
 use lru::LruCache;
 use router_bridge::planner::UsageReporting;
 use tokio::sync::Mutex;
+use tokio::task;
 
 use crate::apollo_studio_interop::generate_extended_references;
 use crate::apollo_studio_interop::ExtendedReferenceStats;
@@ -73,12 +74,32 @@ impl QueryAnalysisLayer {
         }
     }
 
-    pub(crate) fn parse_document(
+    pub(crate) async fn parse_document(
         &self,
         query: &str,
         operation_name: Option<&str>,
     ) -> Result<ParsedDocument, SpecError> {
-        Query::parse_document(query, operation_name, &self.schema, &self.configuration)
+        let query = query.to_string();
+        let operation_name = operation_name.map(|o| o.to_string());
+        let schema = self.schema.clone();
+        let conf = self.configuration.clone();
+
+        // Must be created *outside* of the spawn_blocking or the span is not connected to the
+        // parent
+        let span = tracing::info_span!(QUERY_PARSING_SPAN_NAME, "otel.kind" = "INTERNAL");
+
+        task::spawn_blocking(move || {
+            span.in_scope(|| {
+                Query::parse_document(
+                    &query,
+                    operation_name.as_deref(),
+                    schema.as_ref(),
+                    conf.as_ref(),
+                )
+            })
+        })
+        .await
+        .expect("parse_document task panicked")
     }
 
     pub(crate) async fn supergraph_request(
@@ -127,8 +148,7 @@ impl QueryAnalysisLayer {
 
         let res = match entry {
             None => {
-                let span = tracing::info_span!(QUERY_PARSING_SPAN_NAME, "otel.kind" = "INTERNAL");
-                match span.in_scope(|| self.parse_document(&query, op_name.as_deref())) {
+                match self.parse_document(&query, op_name.as_deref()).await {
                     Err(errors) => {
                         (*self.cache.lock().await).put(
                             QueryAnalysisKey {