diff --git a/zio-kafka-test/src/test/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/ManyPartitionsQueueSizeBasedFetchStrategySpec.scala b/zio-kafka-test/src/test/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/ManyPartitionsQueueSizeBasedFetchStrategySpec.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5d612de26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/zio-kafka-test/src/test/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/ManyPartitionsQueueSizeBasedFetchStrategySpec.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+package zio.kafka.consumer.fetch
+
+import org.apache.kafka.common.TopicPartition
+import zio.kafka.ZIOSpecDefaultSlf4j
+import zio.kafka.consumer.internal.PartitionStream
+import zio.test.{ assertTrue, Spec, TestEnvironment }
+import zio.{ Chunk, Scope, UIO, ZIO }
+
+object ManyPartitionsQueueSizeBasedFetchStrategySpec extends ZIOSpecDefaultSlf4j {
+
+  private val maxPartitionQueueSize = 50
+  private val fetchStrategy = ManyPartitionsQueueSizeBasedFetchStrategy(
+    maxPartitionQueueSize,
+    maxTotalQueueSize = 80
+  )
+
+  private val tp10 = new TopicPartition("topic1", 0)
+  private val tp11 = new TopicPartition("topic1", 1)
+  private val tp20 = new TopicPartition("topic2", 0)
+  private val tp21 = new TopicPartition("topic2", 1)
+  private val tp22 = new TopicPartition("topic2", 2)
+
+  override def spec: Spec[TestEnvironment with Scope, Any] =
+    suite("ManyPartitionsQueueSizeBasedFetchStrategySpec")(
+      test("stream with queue size above maxSize is paused") {
+        val streams = Chunk(newStream(tp10, currentQueueSize = 100))
+        for {
+          result <- fetchStrategy.selectPartitionsToFetch(streams)
+        } yield assertTrue(result.isEmpty)
+      },
+      test("stream with queue size below maxSize may resume when less-equal global max") {
+        val streams = Chunk(newStream(tp10, currentQueueSize = 10))
+        for {
+          result <- fetchStrategy.selectPartitionsToFetch(streams)
+        } yield assertTrue(result == Set(tp10))
+      },
+      test("all streams with queue size less-equal maxSize may resume when total is less-equal global max") {
+        val streams = Chunk(
+          newStream(tp10, currentQueueSize = maxPartitionQueueSize),
+          newStream(tp11, currentQueueSize = 10),
+          newStream(tp20, currentQueueSize = 10),
+          newStream(tp21, currentQueueSize = 10)
+        )
+        for {
+          result <- fetchStrategy.selectPartitionsToFetch(streams)
+        } yield assertTrue(result == Set(tp10, tp11, tp20, tp21))
+      },
+      test("not all streams with queue size less-equal maxSize may resume when total is less-equal global max") {
+        val streams = Chunk(
+          newStream(tp10, currentQueueSize = 40),
+          newStream(tp11, currentQueueSize = 40),
+          newStream(tp20, currentQueueSize = 40),
+          newStream(tp21, currentQueueSize = 40)
+        )
+        for {
+          result <- fetchStrategy.selectPartitionsToFetch(streams)
+        } yield assertTrue(result.size == 2)
+      },
+      test("all streams with queue size less-equal maxSize may resume eventually") {
+        val streams = Chunk(
+          newStream(tp10, currentQueueSize = 60),
+          newStream(tp11, currentQueueSize = 60),
+          newStream(tp20, currentQueueSize = 40),
+          newStream(tp21, currentQueueSize = 40),
+          newStream(tp22, currentQueueSize = 40)
+        )
+        for {
+          result1 <- fetchStrategy.selectPartitionsToFetch(streams)
+          result2 <- fetchStrategy.selectPartitionsToFetch(streams)
+          result3 <- fetchStrategy.selectPartitionsToFetch(streams)
+          result4 <- fetchStrategy.selectPartitionsToFetch(streams)
+          result5 <- fetchStrategy.selectPartitionsToFetch(streams)
+          results = Chunk(result1, result2, result3, result4, result5)
+        } yield assertTrue(
+          results.forall(_.size == 2),
+          results.forall(_.forall(_.topic() == "topic2")),
+          results.flatten.toSet.size == 3
+        )
+      }
+    )
+
+  private def newStream(topicPartition: TopicPartition, currentQueueSize: Int): PartitionStream =
+    new PartitionStream {
+      override def tp: TopicPartition  = topicPartition
+      override def queueSize: UIO[Int] = ZIO.succeed(currentQueueSize)
+    }
+}
diff --git a/zio-kafka-test/src/test/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/PollHistorySpec.scala b/zio-kafka-test/src/test/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/PollHistorySpec.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b05f7a7ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/zio-kafka-test/src/test/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/PollHistorySpec.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+package zio.kafka.consumer.fetch
+
+import zio.Scope
+import zio.kafka.ZIOSpecDefaultSlf4j
+import zio.kafka.consumer.fetch.PollHistory.PollHistoryImpl
+import zio.test._
+
+object PollHistorySpec extends ZIOSpecDefaultSlf4j {
+  override def spec: Spec[TestEnvironment with Scope, Any] = suite("PollHistorySpec")(
+    test("estimates poll count for very regular pattern") {
+      assertTrue(
+        (("001" * 22) + "").toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 3,
+        (("001" * 22) + "0").toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 2,
+        (("001" * 22) + "00").toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 1,
+        (("00001" * 13) + "").toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 5
+      )
+    },
+    test("estimates poll count for somewhat irregular pattern") {
+      assertTrue(
+        "000101001001010001000101001001001".toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 3
+      )
+    },
+    test("estimates poll count only when paused for less than 16 polls") {
+      assertTrue(
+        "0".toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 64,
+        "10000000000000000000000000000000".toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 64,
+        ("11" * 8 + "00" * 8).toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 64,
+        ("11" * 9 + "00" * 7).toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 0
+      )
+    },
+    test("estimates poll count for edge cases") {
+      assertTrue(
+        "11111111111111111111111111111111".toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 1,
+        "10000000000000001000000000000000".toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 1,
+        "01000000000000000100000000000000".toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 2,
+        "00100000000000000010000000000000".toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 3,
+        "00010000000000000001000000000000".toPollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume == 4
+      )
+    },
+    test("add to history") {
+      assertTrue(
+        PollHistory.Empty.addPollHistory(true).asBitString == "1",
+        "101010".toPollHistory.addPollHistory(true).asBitString == "1010101",
+        PollHistory.Empty.addPollHistory(false).asBitString == "0",
+        "1".toPollHistory.addPollHistory(false).asBitString == "10",
+        "101010".toPollHistory.addPollHistory(false).asBitString == "1010100",
+        // Adding resume after a resume is not recorded:
+        "1".toPollHistory.addPollHistory(true).asBitString == "1",
+        "10101".toPollHistory.addPollHistory(true).asBitString == "10101"
+      )
+    }
+  )
+
+  private implicit class RichPollHistory(private val ph: PollHistory) extends AnyVal {
+    def asBitString: String =
+      ph.asInstanceOf[PollHistoryImpl].resumeBits.toBinaryString
+  }
+
+  private implicit class PollHistoryOps(private val s: String) extends AnyVal {
+    def toPollHistory: PollHistory = new PollHistoryImpl(java.lang.Long.parseUnsignedLong(s.takeRight(64), 2))
+  }
+}
diff --git a/zio-kafka/src/main/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/ManyPartitionsQueueSizeBasedFetchStrategy.scala b/zio-kafka/src/main/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/ManyPartitionsQueueSizeBasedFetchStrategy.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fc07653d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/zio-kafka/src/main/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/ManyPartitionsQueueSizeBasedFetchStrategy.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+package zio.kafka.consumer.fetch
+
+import org.apache.kafka.common.TopicPartition
+import zio.{ Chunk, ZIO }
+import zio.kafka.consumer.internal.PartitionStream
+
+import scala.collection.mutable
+
+/**
+ * A fetch strategy that allows a stream to fetch data when its queue size is at or below `maxPartitionQueueSize`, as
+ * long as the total queue size is at or below `maxTotalQueueSize`. This strategy is suitable when
+ * [[QueueSizeBasedFetchStrategy]] requires too much heap space, particularly when a lot of partitions are being
+ * consumed.
+ *
+ * @param maxPartitionQueueSize
+ *   Maximum number of records to be buffered per partition. This buffer improves throughput and supports varying
+ *   downstream message processing time, while maintaining some backpressure. Large values effectively disable
+ *   backpressure at the cost of high memory usage, low values will effectively disable prefetching in favour of low
+ *   memory consumption. The number of records that is fetched on every poll is controlled by the `max.poll.records`
+ *   setting, the number of records fetched for every partition is somewhere between 0 and `max.poll.records`.
+ *
+ * The default value for this parameter is 2 * the default `max.poll.records` of 500, rounded to the nearest power of 2.
+ *
+ * @param maxTotalQueueSize
+ *   Maximum number of records to be buffered over all partitions together. This can be used to limit memory usage when
+ *   consuming a large number of partitions.
+ *
+ * The default value is 20 * the default for `maxTotalQueueSize`, allowing approximately 20 partitions to do
+ * pre-fetching in each poll.
+ */
+final case class ManyPartitionsQueueSizeBasedFetchStrategy(
+  maxPartitionQueueSize: Int = 1024,
+  maxTotalQueueSize: Int = 20480
+) extends FetchStrategy {
+  override def selectPartitionsToFetch(
+    streams: Chunk[PartitionStream]
+  ): ZIO[Any, Nothing, Set[TopicPartition]] = {
+    // By shuffling the streams we prevent read-starvation for streams at the end of the list.
+    val shuffledStreams = scala.util.Random.shuffle(streams)
+    ZIO
+      .foldLeft(shuffledStreams)((mutable.ArrayBuilder.make[TopicPartition], maxTotalQueueSize)) {
+        case (acc @ (partitions, queueBudget), stream) =>
+          stream.queueSize.map { queueSize =>
+            if (queueSize <= maxPartitionQueueSize && queueSize <= queueBudget) {
+              (partitions += stream.tp, queueBudget - queueSize)
+            } else acc
+          }
+      }
+      .map { case (tps, _) => tps.result().toSet }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/zio-kafka/src/main/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/PollHistory.scala b/zio-kafka/src/main/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/PollHistory.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1d19a7177
--- /dev/null
+++ b/zio-kafka/src/main/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/PollHistory.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+package zio.kafka.consumer.fetch
+
+import java.lang.{ Long => JavaLong }
+
+/**
+ * Keep track of a partition status ('resumed' or 'paused') history as it is just before a poll.
+ *
+ * The goal is to predict in how many polls the partition will be resumed.
+ *
+ * WARNING: this is an EXPERIMENTAL API and may change in an incompatible way without notice in any zio-kafka version.
+ */
+sealed trait PollHistory {
+
+  /**
+   * @return
+   *   the estimated number of polls before the partition is resumed (a positive number). When no estimate can be made,
+   *   this returns a high positive number.
+   */
+  def estimatedPollCountToResume: Int
+
+  /**
+   * Creates a new poll history by appending the given partition status as the latest poll. The history length might be
+   * limited. When the maximum length is reached, older history is discarded.
+   *
+   * @param resumed
+   *   true when this partition was 'resumed' before the poll, false when it was 'paused'
+   */
+  def addPollHistory(resumed: Boolean): PollHistory
+}
+
+object PollHistory {
+
+  /**
+   * An implementation of [[PollHistory]] that stores the poll statuses as bits in an unsigned [[Long]].
+   *
+   * Bit value 1 indicates that the partition was resumed and value 0 indicates it was paused. The most recent poll is
+   * in the least significant bit, the oldest poll is in the most significant bit.
+   */
+  // exposed only for tests
+  private[fetch] final class PollHistoryImpl(val resumeBits: Long) extends PollHistory {
+    override def estimatedPollCountToResume: Int = {
+      // This class works with 64 bits, but let's assume an 8 bit history for this example.
+      // Full history is "00100100"
+      // We are currently paused for 2 polls (last "00")
+      // The 'before history' contains 2 polls (in "001001", 6 bits long),
+      // so the average resume cycle is 6 / 2 = 3 polls,
+      // and the estimated wait time before next resume is
+      // average resume cycle (3) - currently pause (2) = 1 poll.
+
+      // Now consider the pattern "0100010001000100" (16 bit history).
+      // It is very regular but the estimate will be off because the oldest cycle
+      // (at beginning of the bitstring) is not complete.
+      // We compensate by removing the first cycle from the 'before history'.
+      // This also helps predicting when the stream only just started.
+
+      // When no resumes are observed in 'before history', we cannot estimate and we return the maximum estimate (64).
+
+      // Also when 'before history' is too short, we can not make a prediction and we return 64.
+      // We require that 'before history' is at least 16 polls long.
+
+      val currentPausedCount   = JavaLong.numberOfTrailingZeros(resumeBits)
+      val firstPollCycleLength = JavaLong.numberOfLeadingZeros(resumeBits) + 1
+      val beforeHistory        = resumeBits >>> currentPausedCount
+      val resumeCount          = JavaLong.bitCount(beforeHistory) - 1
+      val beforeHistoryLength  = JavaLong.SIZE - firstPollCycleLength - currentPausedCount
+      if (resumeCount == 0 || beforeHistoryLength < 16) {
+        JavaLong.SIZE
+      } else {
+        val averageResumeCycleLength = Math.round(beforeHistoryLength / resumeCount.toDouble).toInt
+        Math.max(0, averageResumeCycleLength - currentPausedCount)
+      }
+    }
+
+    override def addPollHistory(resumed: Boolean): PollHistory =
+      // When `resumed` is true, and the previous poll was 'resumed' as well, one of 2 cases are possible:
+      //  1. we're still waiting for the data,
+      //  2. we did get data, but it was already processed and we need more.
+      //
+      // For case 1. we should not add the the history, for case 2 we should.
+      // We'll err to the conservative side and assume case 1.
+      if (resumed && ((resumeBits & 1) == 1)) {
+        this
+      } else {
+        new PollHistoryImpl(resumeBits << 1 | (if (resumed) 1 else 0))
+      }
+  }
+
+  /** An empty poll history. */
+  val Empty: PollHistory = new PollHistoryImpl(0)
+}
diff --git a/zio-kafka/src/main/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/PredictiveFetchStrategy.scala b/zio-kafka/src/main/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/PredictiveFetchStrategy.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2dd8acb45
--- /dev/null
+++ b/zio-kafka/src/main/scala/zio/kafka/consumer/fetch/PredictiveFetchStrategy.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+package zio.kafka.consumer.fetch
+
+import org.apache.kafka.common.TopicPartition
+import zio.kafka.consumer.internal.PartitionStream
+import zio.{ Chunk, ZIO }
+
+import scala.collection.mutable
+
+/**
+ * A fetch strategy that predicts when a stream needs more data by analyzing its history.
+ *
+ * The prediction is based on the average number of polls the stream needed to process data in the recent past. In
+ * addition, a stream can always fetch when it is out of data.
+ *
+ * This fetch strategy is suitable when processing takes at a least a few polls. It is especially suitable when
+ * different streams (partitions) have different processing times, but each stream has consistent processing time.
+ *
+ * Note: this strategy has mutable state; a separate instance is needed for each consumer.
+ *
+ * @param maxEstimatedPollCountsToFetch
+ *   The maximum number of estimated polls before the stream may fetch data. The default (and minimum) is 1 which means
+ *   that data is fetched 1 poll before it is needed. Setting this higher trades higher memory usage for a lower chance
+ *   a stream needs to wait for data.
+ */
+final class PredictiveFetchStrategy(maxEstimatedPollCountsToFetch: Int = 1) extends FetchStrategy {
+  require(maxEstimatedPollCountsToFetch >= 1, s"`pollCount` must be at least 1, got $maxEstimatedPollCountsToFetch")
+  private val CleanupPollCount = 10
+  private var cleanupCountDown = CleanupPollCount
+  private val pollHistories    = mutable.Map.empty[PartitionStream, PollHistory]
+
+  override def selectPartitionsToFetch(
+    streams: Chunk[PartitionStream]
+  ): ZIO[Any, Nothing, Set[TopicPartition]] =
+    ZIO.succeed {
+      if (cleanupCountDown == 0) {
+        pollHistories --= (pollHistories.keySet.toSet -- streams)
+        cleanupCountDown = CleanupPollCount
+      } else {
+        cleanupCountDown -= 1
+      }
+    } *>
+      ZIO
+        .foldLeft(streams)(mutable.ArrayBuilder.make[TopicPartition]) { case (acc, stream) =>
+          stream.queueSize.map { queueSize =>
+            val outOfData        = queueSize == 0
+            val pollHistory      = pollHistories.getOrElseUpdate(stream, PollHistory.Empty)
+            val predictiveResume = pollHistory.estimatedPollCountToResume <= maxEstimatedPollCountsToFetch
+            pollHistories += (stream -> pollHistory.addPollHistory(outOfData))
+            if (outOfData || predictiveResume) acc += stream.tp else acc
+          }
+        }
+        .map(_.result().toSet)
+}