diff --git a/app/vmauth/main.go b/app/vmauth/main.go
index bcfc275f18..202b908fcb 100644
--- a/app/vmauth/main.go
+++ b/app/vmauth/main.go
@@ -161,20 +161,12 @@ func processUserRequest(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, ui *UserInfo) {
 		if err := ui.beginConcurrencyLimit(); err != nil {
 			handleConcurrencyLimitError(w, r, err)
 			<-concurrencyLimitCh
-
-			// Requests failed because of concurrency limit must be counted as errors,
-			// since this usually means the backend cannot keep up with the current load.
-			ui.backendErrors.Inc()
 			return
 		}
 	default:
 		concurrentRequestsLimitReached.Inc()
 		err := fmt.Errorf("cannot serve more than -maxConcurrentRequests=%d concurrent requests", cap(concurrencyLimitCh))
 		handleConcurrencyLimitError(w, r, err)
-
-		// Requests failed because of concurrency limit must be counted as errors,
-		// since this usually means the backend cannot keep up with the current load.
-		ui.backendErrors.Inc()
 		return
 	}
 	processRequest(w, r, ui)
diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index bf8dc87225..c383aa416b 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ See also [LTS releases](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/lts-releases/).
 ## tip
 
 * BUGFIX: [vmalert](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmalert.html): supported any status codes from the range 200-299 from alertmanager. Previously, only 200 status code considered a successful action. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/6110).
+* BUGFIX: [vmauth](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth/): don't treat concurrency limit hit as an error of the backend. Previously, hitting the concurrency limit would increment both `vmauth_concurrent_requests_limit_reached_total` and `vmauth_user_request_backend_errors_total` counters. Now, only concurrency limit counter is incremented. Updates [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5565).
 
 ## [v1.100.1](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.100.1)