diff --git a/plugins/in_emitter/emitter.c b/plugins/in_emitter/emitter.c
index 5d1bd44e876..92803b69e78 100644
--- a/plugins/in_emitter/emitter.c
+++ b/plugins/in_emitter/emitter.c
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include <fluent-bit/flb_sds.h>
 #include <fluent-bit/flb_scheduler.h>
 #include <fluent-bit/flb_ring_buffer.h>
+#include <fluent-bit/flb_storage.h>
 
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h>
@@ -297,6 +298,7 @@ static int cb_emitter_init(struct flb_input_instance *in,
 {
     struct flb_sched *scheduler;
     struct flb_emitter *ctx;
+    char *pause_prop = NULL;
     int ret;
 
     scheduler = flb_sched_ctx_get();
@@ -318,6 +320,26 @@ static int cb_emitter_init(struct flb_input_instance *in,
         return -1;
     }
 
+    /*
+     * The emitter is used internally by filters such as rewrite_tag. When the
+     * downstream outputs experience backpressure, the emitter needs to pause
+     * its upstream senders to avoid holding an arbitrary number of "up"
+     * chunks in memory. Without pausing on the filesystem storage limit, the
+     * emitter can continue to accumulate in-memory chunks (for example, in a
+     * rewrite_tag pipeline) even though storage.max_chunks_up intends to cap
+     * usage. Enable pausing on the storage chunks limit by default when
+     * filesystem storage is in use so the configured storage.max_chunks_up
+     * limit is honored.
+     */
+    pause_prop = flb_input_get_property("storage.pause_on_chunks_overlimit", in);
+    if (pause_prop == NULL) {
+        if (in->storage_type == FLB_STORAGE_FS &&
+            in->storage_pause_on_chunks_overlimit == FLB_FALSE) {
+            in->storage_pause_on_chunks_overlimit = FLB_TRUE;
+            flb_plg_debug(in, "enable pause on storage chunks overlimit for emitter");
+        }
+    }
+
     if (in->is_threaded == FLB_TRUE && ctx->ring_buffer_size == 0) {
         ctx->ring_buffer_size = DEFAULT_EMITTER_RING_BUFFER_FLUSH_FREQUENCY;
         flb_plg_debug(in, "threaded: enable emitter ring buffer (size=%u)",