diff --git a/mlir/include/mlir/Transforms/GreedyPatternRewriteDriver.h b/mlir/include/mlir/Transforms/GreedyPatternRewriteDriver.h
--- a/mlir/include/mlir/Transforms/GreedyPatternRewriteDriver.h
+++ b/mlir/include/mlir/Transforms/GreedyPatternRewriteDriver.h
@@ -33,11 +33,15 @@
   bool enableRegionSimplification = true;
 
   /// This specifies the maximum number of times the rewriter will iterate
-  /// between applying patterns and simplifying regions. Use `kNoIterationLimit`
-  /// to disable this iteration limit.
+  /// between applying patterns and simplifying regions. Use `kNoLimit` to
+  /// disable this iteration limit.
   int64_t maxIterations = 10;
 
-  static constexpr int64_t kNoIterationLimit = -1;
+  /// This specifies the maximum number of rewrites within an iteration. Use
+  /// `kNoLimit` to disable this limit.
+  int64_t maxNumRewrites = kNoLimit;
+
+  static constexpr int64_t kNoLimit = -1;
 };
 
 //===----------------------------------------------------------------------===//
diff --git a/mlir/include/mlir/Transforms/Passes.td b/mlir/include/mlir/Transforms/Passes.td
--- a/mlir/include/mlir/Transforms/Passes.td
+++ b/mlir/include/mlir/Transforms/Passes.td
@@ -30,10 +30,12 @@
            "Seed the worklist in general top-down order">,
     Option<"enableRegionSimplification", "region-simplify", "bool",
            /*default=*/"true",
-           "Seed the worklist in general top-down order">,
+           "Perform control flow optimizations to the region tree">,
     Option<"maxIterations", "max-iterations", "int64_t",
            /*default=*/"10",
-           "Seed the worklist in general top-down order">
+           "Max. iterations between applying patterns / simplifying regions">,
+    Option<"maxNumRewrites", "max-num-rewrites", "int64_t", /*default=*/"-1",
+           "Max. number of pattern rewrites within an iteration">
   ] # RewritePassUtils.options;
 }
 
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Transforms/Canonicalizer.cpp b/mlir/lib/Transforms/Canonicalizer.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Transforms/Canonicalizer.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Transforms/Canonicalizer.cpp
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
     this->topDownProcessingEnabled = config.useTopDownTraversal;
     this->enableRegionSimplification = config.enableRegionSimplification;
     this->maxIterations = config.maxIterations;
+    this->maxNumRewrites = config.maxNumRewrites;
     this->disabledPatterns = disabledPatterns;
     this->enabledPatterns = enabledPatterns;
   }
@@ -55,6 +56,7 @@
     config.useTopDownTraversal = topDownProcessingEnabled;
     config.enableRegionSimplification = enableRegionSimplification;
     config.maxIterations = maxIterations;
+    config.maxNumRewrites = maxNumRewrites;
     (void)applyPatternsAndFoldGreedily(getOperation(), patterns, config);
   }
 
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Transforms/Utils/GreedyPatternRewriteDriver.cpp b/mlir/lib/Transforms/Utils/GreedyPatternRewriteDriver.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Transforms/Utils/GreedyPatternRewriteDriver.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Transforms/Utils/GreedyPatternRewriteDriver.cpp
@@ -183,6 +183,7 @@
     SmallVector<Value, 8> originalOperands, resultValues;
 
     changed = false;
+    int64_t numRewrites = 0;
     while (!worklist.empty()) {
       auto *op = popFromWorklist();
 
@@ -279,16 +280,20 @@
 #else
       LogicalResult matchResult = matcher.matchAndRewrite(op, *this);
 #endif
-      changed |= succeeded(matchResult);
+      if (succeeded(matchResult)) {
+        changed = true;
+        if (numRewrites++ >= config.maxNumRewrites &&
+            config.maxNumRewrites != GreedyRewriteConfig::kNoLimit)
+          break;
+      }
     }
 
     // After applying patterns, make sure that the CFG of each of the regions
     // is kept up to date.
     if (config.enableRegionSimplification)
       changed |= succeeded(simplifyRegions(*this, regions));
-  } while (changed &&
-           (iteration++ < config.maxIterations ||
-            config.maxIterations == GreedyRewriteConfig::kNoIterationLimit));
+  } while (changed && (iteration++ < config.maxIterations ||
+                       config.maxIterations == GreedyRewriteConfig::kNoLimit));
 
   // Whether the rewrite converges, i.e. wasn't changed in the last iteration.
   return !changed;
@@ -506,9 +511,8 @@
     changed |= succeeded(matcher.matchAndRewrite(op, *this));
     if ((erased = opErasedViaPatternRewrites))
       return success();
-  } while (changed &&
-           (++iterations < maxIterations ||
-            maxIterations == GreedyRewriteConfig::kNoIterationLimit));
+  } while (changed && (++iterations < maxIterations ||
+                       maxIterations == GreedyRewriteConfig::kNoLimit));
 
   // Whether the rewrite converges, i.e. wasn't changed in the last iteration.
   return failure(changed);