diff --git a/app/vmselect/promql/transform.go b/app/vmselect/promql/transform.go
index b078313bf9..800fb57209 100644
--- a/app/vmselect/promql/transform.go
+++ b/app/vmselect/promql/transform.go
@@ -303,9 +303,9 @@ func transformBucketsLimit(tfa *transformFuncArg) ([]*timeseries, error) {
 
 	// Group timeseries by all MetricGroup+tags excluding `le` tag.
 	type x struct {
-		le    float64
-		delta float64
-		ts    *timeseries
+		le   float64
+		hits float64
+		ts   *timeseries
 	}
 	m := make(map[string][]x)
 	var b []byte
@@ -333,28 +333,40 @@ func transformBucketsLimit(tfa *transformFuncArg) ([]*timeseries, error) {
 	// Remove buckets with the smallest counters.
 	rvs := make([]*timeseries, 0, len(tss))
 	for _, leGroup := range m {
-		for len(leGroup) > limit {
-			// Remove a single bucket with the smallest sum.
-			// TODO: optimize this dumb implementation a bit, since it may be slow on big number of buckets.
-			sort.Slice(leGroup, func(i, j int) bool {
-				return leGroup[i].le < leGroup[j].le
-			})
-			for i := range leGroup {
-				leGroup[i].delta = 0
+		if len(leGroup) <= limit {
+			// Fast path - the number of buckets doesn't exceed the given limit.
+			// Keep all the buckets as is.
+			for _, xx := range leGroup {
+				rvs = append(rvs, xx.ts)
 			}
-			for n := range limits {
-				prevValue := float64(0)
-				for i := range leGroup {
-					xx := &leGroup[i]
-					value := xx.ts.Values[n]
-					xx.delta += value - prevValue
-					prevValue = value
+			continue
+		}
+		// Slow path - remove buckets with the smallest number of hits until their count reaches the limit.
+
+		// Calculate per-bucket hits.
+		sort.Slice(leGroup, func(i, j int) bool {
+			return leGroup[i].le < leGroup[j].le
+		})
+		for n := range limits {
+			prevValue := float64(0)
+			for i := range leGroup {
+				xx := &leGroup[i]
+				value := xx.ts.Values[n]
+				xx.hits += value - prevValue
+				prevValue = value
+			}
+		}
+		for len(leGroup) > limit {
+			xxMinIdx := 0
+			for i, xx := range leGroup {
+				if xx.hits < leGroup[xxMinIdx].hits {
+					xxMinIdx = i
 				}
 			}
-			sort.Slice(leGroup, func(i, j int) bool {
-				return leGroup[i].delta < leGroup[j].delta
-			})
-			leGroup = leGroup[1:]
+			if xxMinIdx+1 < len(leGroup) {
+				leGroup[xxMinIdx+1].hits += leGroup[xxMinIdx].hits
+			}
+			leGroup = append(leGroup[:xxMinIdx], leGroup[xxMinIdx+1:]...)
 		}
 		for _, xx := range leGroup {
 			rvs = append(rvs, xx.ts)