diff --git a/pkg/blobserver/s3/s3.go b/pkg/blobserver/s3/s3.go
index 5a30e59c9..32122e613 100644
--- a/pkg/blobserver/s3/s3.go
+++ b/pkg/blobserver/s3/s3.go
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ import (
 
 	"go4.org/fault"
 	"go4.org/jsonconfig"
+	"go4.org/syncutil"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -59,6 +60,8 @@ var (
 	faultGet       = fault.NewInjector("s3_get")
 )
 
+const maxParallelHTTP = 5
+
 type s3Storage struct {
 	s3Client *s3.Client
 	bucket   string
@@ -88,6 +91,7 @@ func newFromConfig(_ blobserver.Loader, config jsonconfig.Obj) (blobserver.Stora
 			SecretAccessKey: config.RequiredString("aws_secret_access_key"),
 			Hostname:        hostname,
 		},
+		PutGate: syncutil.NewGate(maxParallelHTTP),
 	}
 	bucket := config.RequiredString("bucket")
 	var dirPrefix string
diff --git a/pkg/blobserver/s3/s3_test.go b/pkg/blobserver/s3/s3_test.go
index b86909aaf..4152ea426 100644
--- a/pkg/blobserver/s3/s3_test.go
+++ b/pkg/blobserver/s3/s3_test.go
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ func TestS3WriteFiles(t *testing.T) {
 		if _, err := schema.WriteFileFromReaderWithModTime(sto, name, time.Now(), f); err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("Error while writing %v to S3: %v", name, err)
 		}
+		t.Logf("Wrote %v successfully to S3", name)
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/misc/amazon/s3/client.go b/pkg/misc/amazon/s3/client.go
index 2c0d66280..6396a71c3 100644
--- a/pkg/misc/amazon/s3/client.go
+++ b/pkg/misc/amazon/s3/client.go
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"camlistore.org/pkg/blob"
+
+	"go4.org/syncutil"
 )
 
 const maxList = 1000
@@ -45,6 +47,10 @@ const maxList = 1000
 type Client struct {
 	*Auth
 	Transport http.RoundTripper // or nil for the default
+	// PutGate limits the number of concurrent PutObject calls, because
+	// apparently S3 throttles us if there are too many. No limit if nil.
+	// Default in S3 blobserver is 5.
+	PutGate *syncutil.Gate
 }
 
 type Bucket struct {
@@ -129,6 +135,10 @@ func (c *Client) Stat(key, bucket string) (size int64, reterr error) {
 }
 
 func (c *Client) PutObject(key, bucket string, md5 hash.Hash, size int64, body io.Reader) error {
+	if c.PutGate != nil {
+		c.PutGate.Start()
+		defer c.PutGate.Done()
+	}
 	req := newReq(c.keyURL(bucket, key))
 	req.Method = "PUT"
 	req.ContentLength = size