diff --git a/app/models/ci/pipeline.rb b/app/models/ci/pipeline.rb
index 3ded675bec0..ebbefc51a4f 100644
--- a/app/models/ci/pipeline.rb
+++ b/app/models/ci/pipeline.rb
@@ -507,7 +507,10 @@ module Ci
     end
 
     def latest_builds_with_artifacts
-      @latest_builds_with_artifacts ||= builds.latest.with_artifacts
+      # We purposely cast the builds to an Array here. Because we always use the
+      # rows if there are more than 0 this prevents us from having to run two
+      # queries: one to get the count and one to get the rows.
+      @latest_builds_with_artifacts ||= builds.latest.with_artifacts.to_a
     end
 
     private
diff --git a/changelogs/unreleased/reduce-queries-for-artifacts-button.yml b/changelogs/unreleased/reduce-queries-for-artifacts-button.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f2d469b5a80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/unreleased/reduce-queries-for-artifacts-button.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+title: Use arrays in Pipeline#latest_builds_with_artifacts
+merge_request:
+author:
+type: performance
diff --git a/spec/models/ci/pipeline_spec.rb b/spec/models/ci/pipeline_spec.rb
index b89b0e555d9..3a19a0753e2 100644
--- a/spec/models/ci/pipeline_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/ci/pipeline_spec.rb
@@ -1502,6 +1502,10 @@ describe Ci::Pipeline, :mailer do
       create(:ci_build, :success, :artifacts, pipeline: pipeline)
     end
 
+    it 'returns an Array' do
+      expect(pipeline.latest_builds_with_artifacts).to be_an_instance_of(Array)
+    end
+
     it 'returns the latest builds' do
       expect(pipeline.latest_builds_with_artifacts).to eq([build])
     end