diff --git a/index/scorch/merge.go b/index/scorch/merge.go
index 2038644a9..ee77ffcba 100644
--- a/index/scorch/merge.go
+++ b/index/scorch/merge.go
@@ -329,38 +329,34 @@ func (s *Scorch) planMergeAtSnapshot(ctx context.Context,
 		return nil
 	}
 
-	// execute all merge tasks concurrently
-	var wg sync.WaitGroup
+	// Execute merge tasks SEQUENTIALLY (as upstream does). Concurrent tasks
+	// multiply transient on-disk staging: every in-flight task's output files
+	// are live (ineligible for GC) until the whole plan lands, and observed
+	// zapx merge output can exceed the planner's predicted sizes by well over
+	// an order of magnitude. Serial execution bounds staging to one task's
+	// footprint at a time and lets a cancel take effect between tasks.
 	results := make([]*mergeTaskResult, len(tasks))
 	var mergeErrs []error
-	var errMu sync.Mutex
 	var allFilenames []string
-	var filenamesMu sync.Mutex
 
 	for taskIdx, task := range tasks {
 		atomic.AddUint64(&s.stats.TotFileMergePlanTasksSegments, uint64(len(task.Segments)))
 
-		wg.Add(1)
-		go func(taskIdx int, task *mergeplan.MergeTask) {
-			defer wg.Done()
-
+		select {
+		case <-cancelCh:
+			mergeErrs = append(mergeErrs, segment.ErrClosed)
+		default:
 			result, err := s.executeMergeTask(task, cancelCh, taskIdx)
 			if err != nil {
-				errMu.Lock()
 				mergeErrs = append(mergeErrs, err)
-				errMu.Unlock()
-				return
+				continue
 			}
-
 			if result != nil {
 				results[taskIdx] = result
-				filenamesMu.Lock()
 				allFilenames = append(allFilenames, result.filenames...)
-				filenamesMu.Unlock()
 			}
-		}(taskIdx, task)
+		}
 	}
-	wg.Wait()
 
 	// check for errors from merge workers
 	if len(mergeErrs) > 0 {