diff --git a/src/network/http.zig b/src/network/http.zig
index 19295ee59..c7914acb0 100644
--- a/src/network/http.zig
+++ b/src/network/http.zig
@@ -668,6 +668,9 @@ pub const Handles = struct {
         errdefer libcurl.curl_multi_cleanup(multi) catch {};
 
         try libcurl.curl_multi_setopt(multi, .max_host_connections, config.httpMaxHostOpen());
+        // Default is 4x the attached easy handles, i.e. ~0 between page loads,
+        // so keepalive connections were evicted on every cross-site navigation.
+        try libcurl.curl_multi_setopt(multi, .max_connects, 128);
 
         return .{ .multi = multi };
     }
diff --git a/src/sys/libcurl.zig b/src/sys/libcurl.zig
index 4ffe54409..dda5ec6e5 100644
--- a/src/sys/libcurl.zig
+++ b/src/sys/libcurl.zig
@@ -239,6 +239,7 @@ pub const CurlHttpVersion = enum(c_long) {
 
 pub const CurlMOption = enum(c.CURLMoption) {
     max_host_connections = c.CURLMOPT_MAX_HOST_CONNECTIONS,
+    max_connects = c.CURLMOPT_MAXCONNECTS,
 };
 
 pub const CurlInfo = enum(c.CURLINFO) {
@@ -742,7 +743,7 @@ pub fn curl_multi_cleanup(multi: *CurlM) ErrorMulti!void {
 pub fn curl_multi_setopt(multi: *CurlM, comptime option: CurlMOption, value: anytype) ErrorMulti!void {
     const opt: c.CURLMoption = @intFromEnum(option);
     const code = switch (option) {
-        .max_host_connections => blk: {
+        .max_host_connections, .max_connects => blk: {
             const n: c_long = switch (@typeInfo(@TypeOf(value))) {
                 .comptime_int, .int => @intCast(value),
                 else => @compileError("expected integer for " ++ @tagName(option) ++ ", got " ++ @typeName(@TypeOf(value))),