diff --git a/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_processor/prewarm.rs b/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_processor/prewarm.rs
index de8a88a167b..7fad35309f5 100644
--- a/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_processor/prewarm.rs
+++ b/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_processor/prewarm.rs
@@ -147,9 +147,6 @@ where
             let (done_tx, done_rx) = mpsc::channel();
             let mut executing = 0usize;
 
-            // Initialize worker handles container
-            let mut handles = Vec::with_capacity(max_concurrency);
-
             // When transaction_count_hint is 0, it means the count is unknown. In this case, spawn
             // max workers to handle potentially many transactions in parallel rather
             // than bottlenecking on a single worker.
@@ -159,6 +156,9 @@ where
                 transaction_count_hint.min(max_concurrency)
             };
 
+            // Initialize worker handles container
+            let mut handles = Vec::with_capacity(workers_needed);
+
             // Only spawn initial workers as needed
             for i in 0..workers_needed {
                 handles.push(ctx.spawn_worker(i, &executor, actions_tx.clone(), done_tx.clone()));