diff --git a/apps/settings/composer/composer/autoload_classmap.php b/apps/settings/composer/composer/autoload_classmap.php
index aa288301381b7..d7d47680d3e89 100644
--- a/apps/settings/composer/composer/autoload_classmap.php
+++ b/apps/settings/composer/composer/autoload_classmap.php
@@ -131,6 +131,7 @@
     'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\PhpOpcacheSetup' => $baseDir . '/../lib/SetupChecks/PhpOpcacheSetup.php',
     'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\PhpOutdated' => $baseDir . '/../lib/SetupChecks/PhpOutdated.php',
     'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\PhpOutputBuffering' => $baseDir . '/../lib/SetupChecks/PhpOutputBuffering.php',
+    'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\PhpSAPI' => $baseDir . '/../lib/SetupChecks/PhpSAPI.php',
     'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\PushService' => $baseDir . '/../lib/SetupChecks/PushService.php',
     'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\RandomnessSecure' => $baseDir . '/../lib/SetupChecks/RandomnessSecure.php',
     'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\ReadOnlyConfig' => $baseDir . '/../lib/SetupChecks/ReadOnlyConfig.php',
diff --git a/apps/settings/composer/composer/autoload_static.php b/apps/settings/composer/composer/autoload_static.php
index ec3304c1e7530..b8376dfc8a7a8 100644
--- a/apps/settings/composer/composer/autoload_static.php
+++ b/apps/settings/composer/composer/autoload_static.php
@@ -146,6 +146,7 @@ class ComposerStaticInitSettings
         'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\PhpOpcacheSetup' => __DIR__ . '/..' . '/../lib/SetupChecks/PhpOpcacheSetup.php',
         'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\PhpOutdated' => __DIR__ . '/..' . '/../lib/SetupChecks/PhpOutdated.php',
         'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\PhpOutputBuffering' => __DIR__ . '/..' . '/../lib/SetupChecks/PhpOutputBuffering.php',
+        'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\PhpSAPI' => __DIR__ . '/..' . '/../lib/SetupChecks/PhpSAPI.php',
         'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\PushService' => __DIR__ . '/..' . '/../lib/SetupChecks/PushService.php',
         'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\RandomnessSecure' => __DIR__ . '/..' . '/../lib/SetupChecks/RandomnessSecure.php',
         'OCA\\Settings\\SetupChecks\\ReadOnlyConfig' => __DIR__ . '/..' . '/../lib/SetupChecks/ReadOnlyConfig.php',
diff --git a/apps/settings/lib/AppInfo/Application.php b/apps/settings/lib/AppInfo/Application.php
index 5faf7b5110b0c..d14cb0b7cac45 100644
--- a/apps/settings/lib/AppInfo/Application.php
+++ b/apps/settings/lib/AppInfo/Application.php
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@
 use OCA\Settings\SetupChecks\PhpOpcacheSetup;
 use OCA\Settings\SetupChecks\PhpOutdated;
 use OCA\Settings\SetupChecks\PhpOutputBuffering;
+use OCA\Settings\SetupChecks\PhpSAPI;
 use OCA\Settings\SetupChecks\PushService;
 use OCA\Settings\SetupChecks\RandomnessSecure;
 use OCA\Settings\SetupChecks\ReadOnlyConfig;
@@ -209,6 +210,7 @@ public function register(IRegistrationContext $context): void {
 		$context->registerSetupCheck(PhpOpcacheSetup::class);
 		$context->registerSetupCheck(PhpOutdated::class);
 		$context->registerSetupCheck(PhpOutputBuffering::class);
+		$context->registerSetupCheck(PhpSAPI::class);
 		$context->registerSetupCheck(RandomnessSecure::class);
 		$context->registerSetupCheck(ReadOnlyConfig::class);
 		$context->registerSetupCheck(RepairSanitizeSystemTagsAvailable::class);
diff --git a/apps/settings/lib/SetupChecks/PhpSAPI.php b/apps/settings/lib/SetupChecks/PhpSAPI.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..9741bc55dba0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/settings/lib/SetupChecks/PhpSAPI.php
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+/**
+ * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Nextcloud GmbH and Nextcloud contributors
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-or-later
+ */
+
+namespace OCA\Settings\SetupChecks;
+
+use OCP\IL10N;
+use OCP\IURLGenerator;
+use OCP\SetupCheck\ISetupCheck;
+use OCP\SetupCheck\SetupResult;
+
+class PhpSAPI implements ISetupCheck {
+	public function __construct(
+		private IL10N $l10n,
+		private IURLGenerator $urlGenerator,
+	) {
+	}
+
+	#[\Override]
+	public function getName(): string {
+		return $this->l10n->t('PHP-FPM process limit');
+	}
+
+	#[\Override]
+	public function getCategory(): string {
+		return 'php';
+	}
+
+	#[\Override]
+	public function run(): SetupResult {
+		if (php_sapi_name() !== 'fpm-fcgi') {
+			return SetupResult::success();
+		}
+
+		if (!function_exists('fpm_get_status')) {
+			return SetupResult::warning(
+				$this->l10n->t('PHP-FPM status is unavailable, so the max children check could not be completed.'),
+				$this->urlGenerator->linkToDocs('admin-php-fpm')
+			);
+		}
+
+		$status = fpm_get_status();
+		if ($status === false) {
+			return SetupResult::warning(
+				$this->l10n->t('PHP-FPM status could not be read, so the max children check could not be completed.'),
+				$this->urlGenerator->linkToDocs('admin-php-fpm')
+			);
+		}
+
+		$maxChildrenReached = $status['max-children-reached'] ?? null;
+		$maxActiveProcesses = $status['max-active-processes'] ?? null;
+		$startTimeEpoch = $status['start-time'] ?? null;
+
+		if (!is_int($maxChildrenReached) || !is_int($maxActiveProcesses) || !is_int($startTimeEpoch)) {
+			return SetupResult::warning(
+				$this->l10n->t('PHP-FPM status is incomplete, so the max children check could not be completed.'),
+				$this->urlGenerator->linkToDocs('admin-php-fpm')
+			);
+		}
+
+		if ($maxChildrenReached > 0) {
+			$startTime = date('Y-m-d H:i:s T', $startTimeEpoch);
+			$timesReached = $this->l10n->n('once', '%n times', $maxChildrenReached);
+
+			$message = $this->l10n->t(
+				'PHP-FPM reached its configured "pm.max_children" limit %s since its last restart at %s (peak active processes: %s).',
+				[$timesReached, $startTime, (string)$maxActiveProcesses],
+			);
+			$message .= ' ' . $this->l10n->t(
+				'When the pool is saturated, additional requests may be queued, time out, or fail. This can cause slow responses, client connection errors, or 502/504 gateway errors.'
+			);
+			$message .= "\n\n" . $this->l10n->t(
+				'The counter resets when PHP-FPM restarts. If saturation is ongoing or recurring, review pool configuration and server capacity and consider increasing "pm.max_children".'
+			);
+
+			return SetupResult::warning(
+				$message,
+				$this->urlGenerator->linkToDocs('admin-php-fpm'),
+			);
+		}
+
+		return SetupResult::success();
+	}
+}