diff --git a/crates/corro-agent/src/agent/handlers.rs b/crates/corro-agent/src/agent/handlers.rs
index 56b3245f..76c12743 100644
--- a/crates/corro-agent/src/agent/handlers.rs
+++ b/crates/corro-agent/src/agent/handlers.rs
@@ -731,6 +731,7 @@ pub async fn handle_changes(
     mut tripwire: Tripwire,
 ) {
     let max_changes_chunk: usize = agent.config().perf.apply_queue_len;
+    let max_queue_len: usize = agent.config().perf.processing_queue_len;
     let mut queue: VecDeque<(ChangeV1, ChangeSource, Instant)> = VecDeque::new();
     let mut buf = vec![];
     let mut buf_cost = 0;
@@ -746,6 +747,7 @@ pub async fn handle_changes(
     const KEEP_SEEN_CACHE_SIZE: usize = 1000;
     let mut seen: IndexMap<_, RangeInclusiveSet<CrsqlSeq>> = IndexMap::new();
 
+    let mut drop_log_count: u64 = 0;
     // complicated loop to process changes efficiently w/ a max concurrency
     // and a minimum chunk size for bigger and faster SQLite transactions
     loop {
@@ -861,6 +863,26 @@ pub async fn handle_changes(
             continue;
         }
 
+        // drop items when the queue is full.
+        if queue.len() > max_queue_len {
+            drop_log_count += 1;
+            if is_pow_10(drop_log_count) {
+                if drop_log_count == 1 {
+                    warn!("dropping a change because changes queue is full");
+                } else {
+                    warn!(
+                        "dropping {} changes because changes queue is full",
+                        drop_log_count
+                    );
+                }
+            }
+            // reset count
+            if drop_log_count == 100000000 {
+                drop_log_count = 0;
+            }
+            continue;
+        }
+
         if let Some(mut seqs) = change.seqs().cloned() {
             let v = *change.versions().start();
             if let Some(seen_seqs) = seen.get(&(change.actor_id, v)) {
@@ -1142,3 +1164,11 @@ mod tests {
         Ok(())
     }
 }
+
+#[inline]
+fn is_pow_10(i: u64) -> bool {
+    matches!(
+        i,
+        1 | 10 | 100 | 1000 | 10000 | 1000000 | 10000000 | 100000000
+    )
+}
diff --git a/crates/corro-types/src/config.rs b/crates/corro-types/src/config.rs
index 348bd362..7681bfb9 100644
--- a/crates/corro-types/src/config.rs
+++ b/crates/corro-types/src/config.rs
@@ -14,6 +14,9 @@ const fn default_apply_queue() -> usize {
 const fn default_wal_threshold() -> usize {
     10
 }
+const fn default_processing_queue() -> usize {
+    100000
+}
 
 /// Used for the apply channel
 const fn default_huge_channel() -> usize {
@@ -187,6 +190,8 @@ pub struct PerfConfig {
     pub apply_queue_len: usize,
     #[serde(default = "default_wal_threshold")]
     pub wal_threshold_gb: usize,
+    #[serde(default = "default_processing_queue")]
+    pub processing_queue_len: usize,
 }
 
 impl Default for PerfConfig {
@@ -204,6 +209,7 @@ impl Default for PerfConfig {
             apply_queue_timeout: default_apply_timeout(),
             apply_queue_len: default_apply_queue(),
             wal_threshold_gb: default_wal_threshold(),
+            processing_queue_len: default_processing_queue(),
         }
     }
 }