diff --git a/activesupport/CHANGELOG.md b/activesupport/CHANGELOG.md
index 04c9ea8f59..a92b2c783c 100644
--- a/activesupport/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/activesupport/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+*   Parallelize tests only when overhead is justified by the number of them
+
+    Running tests in parallel adds overhead in terms of database
+    setup and fixture loading. Now, Rails will only parallelize test executions when
+    there are enough tests to make it worth it.
+
+    This threshold is 50 by default, and is configurable via:
+
+    ```ruby
+    config.active_support.test_parallelization_minimum_number_of_tests = 100
+    ```
+
+    *Jorge Manrubia*
+
 *   OpenSSL constants are now used for Digest computations.
 
     *Dirkjan Bussink*
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support.rb
index 0abbbb2e38..b05379d666 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support.rb
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ module ActiveSupport
 
   cattr_accessor :test_order # :nodoc:
   cattr_accessor :test_parallelization_disabled, default: false # :nodoc:
+  cattr_accessor :test_parallelization_minimum_number_of_tests, default: 50 # :nodoc:
 
   def self.disable_test_parallelization!
     self.test_parallelization_disabled = true unless ENV["PARALLEL_WORKERS"]
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/test_case.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/test_case.rb
index f4e54a538e..ba7b7ae633 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/test_case.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/test_case.rb
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ require "active_support/testing/constant_lookup"
 require "active_support/testing/time_helpers"
 require "active_support/testing/file_fixtures"
 require "active_support/testing/parallelization"
+require "active_support/testing/parallelize_executor"
 require "concurrent/utility/processor_counter"
 
 module ActiveSupport
@@ -77,20 +78,7 @@ module ActiveSupport
 
         return if workers <= 1 || ActiveSupport.test_parallelization_disabled
 
-        executor = case with
-                   when :processes
-                     Testing::Parallelization.new(workers)
-                   when :threads
-                     Minitest::Parallel::Executor.new(workers)
-                   else
-                     raise ArgumentError, "#{with} is not a supported parallelization executor."
-        end
-
-        self.lock_threads = false if defined?(self.lock_threads) && with == :threads
-
-        Minitest.parallel_executor = executor
-
-        parallelize_me!
+        Minitest.parallel_executor = ActiveSupport::Testing::ParallelizeExecutor.new(size: workers, with: with)
       end
 
       # Set up hook for parallel testing. This can be used if you have multiple
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/testing/parallelization.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/testing/parallelization.rb
index fc6e689260..d1b2734ca1 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/testing/parallelization.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/testing/parallelization.rb
@@ -42,6 +42,10 @@ module ActiveSupport
         @queue_server << work
       end
 
+      def size
+        @worker_count
+      end
+
       def shutdown
         @queue_server.shutdown
         @worker_pool.each { |pid| Process.waitpid pid }
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/testing/parallelize_executor.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/testing/parallelize_executor.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..491390b3e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/testing/parallelize_executor.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+# frozen_string_literal: true
+
+module ActiveSupport
+  module Testing
+    class ParallelizeExecutor # :nodoc:
+      attr_reader :size, :parallelize_with, :parallel_executor
+
+      def initialize(size:, with:)
+        @size = size
+        @parallelize_with = with
+        @parallel_executor = build_parallel_executor
+      end
+
+      def start
+        parallelize if should_parallelize?
+        show_execution_info
+
+        parallel_executor.start if parallelized?
+      end
+
+      def <<(work)
+        parallel_executor << work if parallelized?
+      end
+
+      def shutdown
+        parallel_executor.shutdown if parallelized?
+      end
+
+      private
+        def build_parallel_executor
+          case parallelize_with
+          when :processes
+            Testing::Parallelization.new(size)
+          when :threads
+            ActiveSupport::TestCase.lock_threads = false if defined?(ActiveSupport::TestCase.lock_threads)
+            Minitest::Parallel::Executor.new(size)
+          else
+            raise ArgumentError, "#{parallelize_with} is not a supported parallelization executor."
+          end
+        end
+
+        def parallelize
+          @parallelized = true
+          Minitest::Test.parallelize_me!
+        end
+
+        def parallelized?
+          @parallelized
+        end
+
+        def should_parallelize?
+          ENV["PARALLEL_WORKERS"] || tests_count > ActiveSupport.test_parallelization_minimum_number_of_tests
+        end
+
+        def tests_count
+          @tests_count ||= Minitest::Runnable.runnables.sum { |runnable| runnable.runnable_methods.size }
+        end
+
+        def show_execution_info
+          puts execution_info
+        end
+
+        def execution_info
+          if should_parallelize?
+            "Running #{tests_count} tests in parallel using #{parallel_executor.size} #{parallelize_with}"
+          else
+            "Running #{tests_count} tests in a single process (parallelization threshold is #{ActiveSupport.test_parallelization_minimum_number_of_tests})"
+          end
+        end
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/guides/source/testing.md b/guides/source/testing.md
index cffe52d998..b18bbf82e4 100644
--- a/guides/source/testing.md
+++ b/guides/source/testing.md
@@ -569,6 +569,16 @@ end
 NOTE: With disabled transactional tests, you have to clean up any data tests
 create as changes are not automatically rolled back after the test completes.
 
+### Threshold to parallelize tests
+
+Running tests in parallel adds an overhead in terms of database setup and
+fixture loading. Because of this, Rails won't parallelize executions that involve
+fewer than 50 tests. You can configure this threshold in your `test.rb`:
+
+```ruby
+config.active_support.test_parallelization_minimum_number_of_tests = 100
+```
+
 The Test Database
 -----------------
 
diff --git a/railties/test/application/configuration_test.rb b/railties/test/application/configuration_test.rb
index 91251d35cd..342d8c216c 100644
--- a/railties/test/application/configuration_test.rb
+++ b/railties/test/application/configuration_test.rb
@@ -2421,6 +2421,20 @@ module ApplicationTests
       assert_equal OpenSSL::Digest::SHA256, ActiveSupport::KeyGenerator.hash_digest_class
     end
 
+    test "ActiveSupport.test_parallelization_minimum_number_of_tests can be configured via config.active_support.test_parallelization_minimum_number_of_tests" do
+      remove_from_config '.*config\.load_defaults.*\n'
+
+      app_file "config/environments/test.rb", <<-RUBY
+        Rails.application.configure do
+          config.active_support.test_parallelization_minimum_number_of_tests = 1234
+        end
+      RUBY
+
+      app "test"
+
+      assert_equal 1234, ActiveSupport.test_parallelization_minimum_number_of_tests
+    end
+
     test "custom serializers should be able to set via config.active_job.custom_serializers in an initializer" do
       class ::DummySerializer < ActiveJob::Serializers::ObjectSerializer; end
 
diff --git a/railties/test/application/test_runner_test.rb b/railties/test/application/test_runner_test.rb
index b534100c65..95c0fa1764 100644
--- a/railties/test/application/test_runner_test.rb
+++ b/railties/test/application/test_runner_test.rb
@@ -567,9 +567,29 @@ module ApplicationTests
       output = run_test_command(file_name)
 
       assert_match %r{Finished in.*\n2 runs, 2 assertions}, output
+      assert_match %r{Running \d+ tests in parallel using \d+ processes}, output
       assert_no_match "create_table(:users)", output
     end
 
+    def test_avoid_paralleling_when_number_of_tests_if_below_threshold
+      exercise_parallelization_regardless_of_machine_core_count(with: :processes, threshold: 100)
+
+      file_name = create_parallel_processes_test_file
+
+      app_file "db/schema.rb", <<-RUBY
+        ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 1) do
+          create_table :users do |t|
+            t.string :name
+          end
+        end
+      RUBY
+
+      output = run_test_command(file_name)
+
+      assert_match %r{Running \d+ tests in a single process}, output
+      assert_no_match %r{Running \d+ tests in parallel using \d+ processes}, output
+    end
+
     def test_parallel_is_disabled_when_single_file_is_run
       exercise_parallelization_regardless_of_machine_core_count(with: :processes, force: false)
 
@@ -1140,12 +1160,14 @@ module ApplicationTests
         RUBY
       end
 
-      def exercise_parallelization_regardless_of_machine_core_count(with:, force: true)
+      def exercise_parallelization_regardless_of_machine_core_count(with:, force: true, threshold: 0)
         file_content = ERB.new(<<-ERB, trim_mode: "-").result_with_hash(with: with.to_s, force: force)
           ENV["RAILS_ENV"] ||= "test"
           require_relative "../config/environment"
           require "rails/test_help"
 
+          ActiveSupport.test_parallelization_minimum_number_of_tests = #{threshold}
+
           class ActiveSupport::TestCase
             <%- if force -%>
             # Force parallelization, even with single files