diff --git a/app/controllers/projects/pipelines_controller.rb b/app/controllers/projects/pipelines_controller.rb
index 91afe24b707..6b40fc2fe68 100644
--- a/app/controllers/projects/pipelines_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/projects/pipelines_controller.rb
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ class Projects::PipelinesController < Projects::ApplicationController
           pipelines: PipelineSerializer
             .new(project: @project, current_user: @current_user)
             .with_pagination(request, response)
-            .represent(@pipelines),
+            .represent(@pipelines, disable_coverage: true),
           count: {
             all: @pipelines_count,
             running: @running_count,
diff --git a/app/serializers/pipeline_entity.rb b/app/serializers/pipeline_entity.rb
index 6457294b285..f782b411b84 100644
--- a/app/serializers/pipeline_entity.rb
+++ b/app/serializers/pipeline_entity.rb
@@ -4,7 +4,11 @@ class PipelineEntity < Grape::Entity
   expose :id
   expose :user, using: UserEntity
   expose :active?, as: :active
-  expose :coverage
+
+  # Coverage isn't always necessary (e.g. when displaying project pipelines in
+  # the UI). Instead of creating an entirely different entity we just allow the
+  # disabling of this specific field whenever necessary.
+  expose :coverage, unless: proc { options[:disable_coverage] }
   expose :source
 
   expose :created_at, :updated_at
diff --git a/spec/controllers/projects/pipelines_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/projects/pipelines_controller_spec.rb
index c22e455ea2d..9e7bc20a6d1 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/projects/pipelines_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/projects/pipelines_controller_spec.rb
@@ -41,6 +41,12 @@ describe Projects::PipelinesController do
       expect(json_response['count']['finished']).to eq '1'
     end
 
+    it 'does not include coverage data for the pipelines' do
+      subject
+
+      expect(json_response['pipelines'][0]).not_to include('coverage')
+    end
+
     context 'when performing gitaly calls', :request_store do
       it 'limits the Gitaly requests' do
         expect { subject }.to change { Gitlab::GitalyClient.get_request_count }.by(3)
diff --git a/spec/serializers/pipeline_entity_spec.rb b/spec/serializers/pipeline_entity_spec.rb
index 2473c561f4b..e67d12b7a89 100644
--- a/spec/serializers/pipeline_entity_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/serializers/pipeline_entity_spec.rb
@@ -26,6 +26,13 @@ describe PipelineEntity do
         expect(subject).to include :updated_at, :created_at
       end
 
+      it 'excludes coverage data when disabled' do
+        entity = described_class
+          .represent(pipeline, request: request, disable_coverage: true)
+
+        expect(entity.as_json).not_to include(:coverage)
+      end
+
       it 'contains details' do
         expect(subject).to include :details
         expect(subject[:details])