diff --git a/ax/service/scheduler.py b/ax/service/scheduler.py
index 502cd523586..a4a22c4cc5a 100644
--- a/ax/service/scheduler.py
+++ b/ax/service/scheduler.py
@@ -1123,6 +1123,53 @@ def _check_exit_status_and_report_results(
             idle_callback, force_refit=True
         )
 
+    def _check_if_can_run_trials(self) -> bool:
+        """Check if we have capacity to run new trials."""
+
+        capacity = self.runner.poll_available_capacity()
+        max_pending_trials = self._get_max_pending_trials()
+        num_pending_trials = len(self.pending_trials)
+        # Check if we've reached maximum pending trials
+        if num_pending_trials >= max_pending_trials:
+            self.logger.debug(
+                f"`max_pending_trials={max_pending_trials}` and {num_pending_trials} "
+                "trials are currently pending; not initiating any additional trials."
+            )
+            return False
+        # Check if we have available capacity
+        if capacity != -1 and capacity < 1:
+            self.logger.debug("There is no capacity to run any trials.")
+            return False
+        return True
+
+    def _compute_num_trials_to_run(self, max_new_trials: int) -> tuple[int, int]:
+        num_existing_trials_to_run = (
+            self.runner.poll_available_capacity()
+            if self.options.run_trials_in_batches
+            else 1
+        )
+        total_trials = self.options.total_trials
+        max_pending_trials = self._get_max_pending_trials()
+
+        num_pending_trials = len(self.pending_trials)
+        max_pending_upper_bound = max_pending_trials - num_pending_trials
+
+        num_existing_trials_to_run = (
+            max_pending_upper_bound
+            if num_existing_trials_to_run == -1
+            else min(max_pending_upper_bound, num_existing_trials_to_run)
+        )
+
+        if total_trials is not None:
+            left_in_total = total_trials - len(self.trials_expecting_data)
+            num_existing_trials_to_run = min(num_existing_trials_to_run, left_in_total)
+
+        return num_existing_trials_to_run, min(
+            num_existing_trials_to_run
+            - len(self.candidate_trials[:num_existing_trials_to_run]),
+            max_new_trials,
+        )
+
     def run(self, max_new_trials: int, timeout_hours: float | None = None) -> bool:
         """Schedules trial evaluation(s) if stopping criterion is not triggered,
         maximum parallelism is not currently reached, and capacity allows.
@@ -1157,10 +1204,28 @@ def run(self, max_new_trials: int, timeout_hours: float | None = None) -> bool:
         # Check if capacity allows for running new evaluations and generate as many
         # trials as possible, limited by capacity and model requirements.
         self._sleep_if_too_early_to_poll()
-        existing_trials, new_trials = self._prepare_trials(
+
+        if not self._check_if_can_run_trials():
+            return False
+
+        existing_trial_count, new_trial_count = self._compute_num_trials_to_run(
             max_new_trials=max_new_trials
         )
 
+        existing_trials = self.candidate_trials[:existing_trial_count]
+        new_trials, gen_candidates_err = (
+            self.generate_candidates(num_trials=new_trial_count)
+            if new_trial_count > 0
+            else ([], None)
+        )
+
+        if gen_candidates_err:
+            new_trials = []
+            self.logger.exception(
+                "An unexpected error occurred while generating "
+                f"trials: {gen_candidates_err}. "
+            )
+
         if not existing_trials and not new_trials:
             # Unable to gen. new run due to max parallelism limit or need for data
             # or unable to run trials due to lack of capacity.