diff --git a/python/sglang/srt/environ.py b/python/sglang/srt/environ.py
index 28b9ee4f4b86..adc21301ba15 100644
--- a/python/sglang/srt/environ.py
+++ b/python/sglang/srt/environ.py
@@ -243,6 +243,10 @@ class Envs:
     SGLANG_DISAGGREGATION_WAITING_TIMEOUT = EnvInt(300)
     SGLANG_DISAGGREGATION_NIXL_BACKEND = EnvStr("UCX")
     SGLANG_DISAGGREGATION_ALL_CP_RANKS_TRANSFER = EnvBool(False)
+    # Extra slots in req_to_token_pool for decode workers (only effective when
+    # max_num_reqs > 32). Increases pool capacity so more KV cache transfers
+    # can overlap with decode execution without raising max_running_requests.
+    SGLANG_DISAGGREGATION_NUM_PRE_ALLOCATE_REQS = EnvInt(0)
 
     # Scheduler: others:
     SGLANG_EMPTY_CACHE_INTERVAL = EnvFloat(-1)  # in seconds. Set if you observe high memory accumulation over a long serving period.
diff --git a/python/sglang/srt/model_executor/model_runner_kv_cache_mixin.py b/python/sglang/srt/model_executor/model_runner_kv_cache_mixin.py
index 810f31380b74..291d9515df17 100644
--- a/python/sglang/srt/model_executor/model_runner_kv_cache_mixin.py
+++ b/python/sglang/srt/model_executor/model_runner_kv_cache_mixin.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 from sglang.srt.configs.model_config import get_nsa_index_head_dim, is_deepseek_nsa
 from sglang.srt.distributed.parallel_state import get_world_group
+from sglang.srt.environ import envs
 from sglang.srt.layers.dp_attention import get_attention_tp_size
 from sglang.srt.mem_cache.allocator import (
     PagedTokenToKVPoolAllocator,
@@ -392,7 +393,11 @@ def _init_pools(self: ModelRunner):
 
                 # subscribe memory for pre-allocated requests
                 # if max_num_reqs <= 32, we pre-allocate 2x requests
-                pre_alloc_size = max_num_reqs * 2 if max_num_reqs <= 32 else 0
+
+                pre_alloc_size = envs.SGLANG_DISAGGREGATION_NUM_PRE_ALLOCATE_REQS.get()
+                pre_alloc_size = (
+                    max_num_reqs * 2 if max_num_reqs <= 32 else pre_alloc_size
+                )
                 if config := self.mambaish_config:
                     self.req_to_token_pool = HybridMambaDecodeReqToTokenPool(
                         size=max_num_reqs,