diff --git a/include/haproxy/cpu_topo-t.h b/include/haproxy/cpu_topo-t.h
index cb6e4f005..4d85945eb 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/cpu_topo-t.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/cpu_topo-t.h
@@ -49,4 +49,19 @@ struct ha_cpu_cluster {
 	uint nb_cpu;      /* total CPUs */
 };
 
+/* Description of a CPU selection policy. For now it only associates an option
+ * name with a callback function that is supposed to adjust the global.nbthread
+ * and global.nbtgroups based on the policy, the topology, and the constraints
+ * on the number of threads which must be between tmin and tmax included, and
+ * the number of thread groups which must be between gmin and gmax included.
+ * The callback also takes the policy number (cpu_policy) and a pointer to a
+ * string to write an error to in case of failure (in which case ret must be
+ * < 0 and the caller will fre the location). More settings might come later.
+ */
+struct ha_cpu_policy {
+	const char *name;                    /* option name in the configuration */
+	const char *desc;                    /* short description for help messages */
+	int (*fct)(int policy, int tmin, int tmax, int gmin, int gmax, char **err);
+};
+
 #endif /* _HAPROXY_CPU_TOPO_T_H */
diff --git a/include/haproxy/cpu_topo.h b/include/haproxy/cpu_topo.h
index 97a8a783d..959d89b99 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/cpu_topo.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/cpu_topo.h
@@ -37,6 +37,11 @@ void cpu_compose_clusters(void);
 /* apply remaining topology-based cpu set restrictions */
 void cpu_refine_cpusets(void);
 
+/* apply the chosen CPU policy. Returns < 0 on failure with a message in *err
+ * that must be freed by the caller if non-null.
+ */
+int cpu_apply_policy(int tmin, int tmax, int gmin, int gmax, char **err);
+
 /* Detects CPUs that are bound to the current process. Returns the number of
  * CPUs detected or 0 if the detection failed.
  */
diff --git a/src/cpu_topo.c b/src/cpu_topo.c
index 15d664f6e..1aef23198 100644
--- a/src/cpu_topo.c
+++ b/src/cpu_topo.c
@@ -46,6 +46,15 @@ struct cpu_set_cfg {
 	struct hap_cpuset drop_threads;
 } cpu_set_cfg;
 
+/* CPU policy choice */
+static int cpu_policy = 0;
+
+/* list of CPU policies for "cpu-policy". The default one is the first one. */
+static struct ha_cpu_policy ha_cpu_policy[] = {
+	{ .name = "none",               .desc = "use all available CPUs",                           .fct = NULL   },
+	{ 0 } /* end */
+};
+
 /* Detects CPUs that are online on the system. It may rely on FS access (e.g.
  * /sys on Linux). Returns the number of CPUs detected or 0 if the detection
  * failed.
@@ -872,6 +881,29 @@ void cpu_refine_cpusets(void)
 	}
 }
 
+/* apply the chosen CPU policy if no cpu-map was forced. Returns < 0 on failure
+ * with a message in *err that must be freed by the caller if non-null.
+ */
+int cpu_apply_policy(int tmin, int tmax, int gmin, int gmax, char **err)
+{
+	*err = NULL;
+
+	if (cpu_map_configured()) {
+		/* nothing to do */
+		return 0;
+	}
+
+	if (!ha_cpu_policy[cpu_policy].fct) {
+		/* nothing to do */
+		return 0;
+	}
+
+	if (ha_cpu_policy[cpu_policy].fct(cpu_policy, tmin, tmax, gmin, gmax, err) < 0)
+		return -1;
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
 /* CPU topology detection below, OS-specific */
 
 #if defined(__linux__)
@@ -1330,6 +1362,36 @@ static int cfg_parse_cpu_set(char **args, int section_type, struct proxy *curpx,
 	return -1;
 }
 
+/* Parse the "cpu-policy" global directive, which takes the name of one of the
+ * ha_cpu_policy[] names, and sets the associated index in cpu_policy.
+ */
+static int cfg_parse_cpu_policy(char **args, int section_type, struct proxy *curpx,
+				const struct proxy *defpx, const char *file, int line,
+				char **err)
+{
+	int i;
+
+	if (too_many_args(1, args, err, NULL))
+		return -1;
+
+	for (i = 0; ha_cpu_policy[i].name; i++) {
+		if (strcmp(args[1], ha_cpu_policy[i].name) == 0) {
+			cpu_policy = i;
+			return 0;
+		}
+	}
+
+	memprintf(err, "'%s' passed an unknown CPU policy '%s'. Supported values are:", args[0], args[1]);
+	for (i = 0; ha_cpu_policy[i].name; i++) {
+		memprintf(err, "%s%s '%s' (%s)%s", *err,
+		          (i > 0 && ha_cpu_policy[i+1].name) ? "" : " and",
+		          ha_cpu_policy[i].name,
+		          ha_cpu_policy[i].desc,
+		          (ha_cpu_policy[i+1].name) ? "," : ".\n");
+	}
+	return -1;
+}
+
 /* Allocates everything needed to store CPU topology at boot.
  * Returns non-zero on success, zero on failure.
  */
@@ -1403,6 +1465,7 @@ REGISTER_POST_DEINIT(cpu_topo_deinit);
 
 /* config keyword parsers */
 static struct cfg_kw_list cfg_kws = {ILH, {
+	{ CFG_GLOBAL, "cpu-policy",  cfg_parse_cpu_policy, 0 },
 	{ CFG_GLOBAL, "cpu-set",  cfg_parse_cpu_set, 0 },
 	{ 0, NULL, NULL }
 }};
diff --git a/src/thread.c b/src/thread.c
index 7a720d827..57925b989 100644
--- a/src/thread.c
+++ b/src/thread.c
@@ -1549,6 +1549,7 @@ void thread_detect_count(void)
 	int grp_max __maybe_unused;
 	int cpus_avail __maybe_unused;
 	int cpu __maybe_unused;
+	char *err __maybe_unused;
 
 	thr_min = 1; thr_max = MAX_THREADS;
 	grp_min = 1; grp_max = MAX_TGROUPS;
@@ -1614,6 +1615,13 @@ void thread_detect_count(void)
 	 * on the same cluster _capacity_ up to thr_max.
 	 */
 
+	if (cpu_apply_policy(thr_min, thr_max, grp_min, grp_max, &err) < 0) {
+		if (err)
+			ha_warning("cpu-policy: %s\n", err);
+		ha_free(&err);
+		return;
+	}
+
 	/* Let's implement here the automatic binding to the first available
 	 * NUMA node when thread count is not set, taskset is not used and
 	 * no cpu-map directive is present.