diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/SystemConfigs.java b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/SystemConfigs.java
index be59424992ee..5c958cba29a4 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/SystemConfigs.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/SystemConfigs.java
@@ -61,6 +61,18 @@ private SystemConfigs() {}
           1,
           Integer::parseUnsignedInt);
 
+  /**
+   * Sets the size of the thread pool used for asynchronous scan planning in the REST catalog
+   * reference implementation. This controls the parallelism of server-side scan planning operations
+   * in {@link org.apache.iceberg.rest.CatalogHandlers}.
+   */
+  public static final ConfigEntry<Integer> REST_ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS =
+      new ConfigEntry<>(
+          "iceberg.rest.async-planning-threads",
+          "ICEBERG_REST_ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS",
+          Math.max(2, Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors()),
+          Integer::parseUnsignedInt);
+
   /** Whether to use the shared worker pool when planning table scans. */
   public static final ConfigEntry<Boolean> SCAN_THREAD_POOL_ENABLED =
       new ConfigEntry<>(
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/rest/CatalogHandlers.java b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/rest/CatalogHandlers.java
index 3a1e62260aae..f127c9dd180b 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/rest/CatalogHandlers.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/rest/CatalogHandlers.java
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@
 import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentMap;
 import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
-import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
 import java.util.function.Predicate;
@@ -57,6 +56,7 @@
 import org.apache.iceberg.Scan;
 import org.apache.iceberg.Schema;
 import org.apache.iceberg.SortOrder;
+import org.apache.iceberg.SystemConfigs;
 import org.apache.iceberg.Table;
 import org.apache.iceberg.TableMetadata;
 import org.apache.iceberg.TableOperations;
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@
 import org.apache.iceberg.rest.responses.UpdateNamespacePropertiesResponse;
 import org.apache.iceberg.util.Pair;
 import org.apache.iceberg.util.Tasks;
+import org.apache.iceberg.util.ThreadPools;
 import org.apache.iceberg.view.BaseView;
 import org.apache.iceberg.view.SQLViewRepresentation;
 import org.apache.iceberg.view.View;
@@ -116,7 +117,17 @@ public class CatalogHandlers {
   private static final String INITIAL_PAGE_TOKEN = "";
   private static final InMemoryPlanningState IN_MEMORY_PLANNING_STATE =
       InMemoryPlanningState.getInstance();
-  private static final ExecutorService ASYNC_PLANNING_POOL = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
+
+  /**
+   * Thread pool size for asynchronous scan planning operations. Controlled by the system property
+   * {@code iceberg.rest.async-planning-threads} or environment variable {@code
+   * ICEBERG_REST_ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS}. Defaults to the number of available processors.
+   */
+  public static final int ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS =
+      SystemConfigs.REST_ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS.value();
+
+  private static final ExecutorService ASYNC_PLANNING_POOL =
+      ThreadPools.newExitingWorkerPool("iceberg-rest-async-plan", ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS);
 
   // Advanced idempotency store with TTL and in-flight coalescing.
   //
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/rest/TestAsyncPlanningPoolConfig.java b/core/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/rest/TestAsyncPlanningPoolConfig.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..7fe911920e80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/rest/TestAsyncPlanningPoolConfig.java
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.iceberg.rest;
+
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+
+import org.apache.iceberg.SystemConfigs;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+/**
+ * Tests for the {@link CatalogHandlers#ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS} configuration and related system
+ * properties.
+ */
+public class TestAsyncPlanningPoolConfig {
+
+  @Test
+  public void testDefaultAsyncPlanningThreadsIsReasonable() {
+    // The default should be at least 2 to enable parallelism
+    int defaultThreads = SystemConfigs.REST_ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS.defaultValue();
+    assertThat(defaultThreads)
+        .as("Default async planning threads should be at least 2")
+        .isGreaterThanOrEqualTo(2);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testDefaultMatchesAvailableProcessors() {
+    int expected = Math.max(2, Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors());
+    int defaultThreads = SystemConfigs.REST_ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS.defaultValue();
+    assertThat(defaultThreads)
+        .as("Default async planning threads should be max(2, availableProcessors) = %d", expected)
+        .isEqualTo(expected);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testPropertyKeyIsCorrect() {
+    String propertyKey = SystemConfigs.REST_ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS.propertyKey();
+    assertThat(propertyKey)
+        .as("System property key should follow Iceberg convention")
+        .isEqualTo("iceberg.rest.async-planning-threads");
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testEnvVarKeyIsCorrect() {
+    String envKey = SystemConfigs.REST_ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS.envKey();
+    assertThat(envKey)
+        .as("Environment variable key should follow Iceberg convention")
+        .isEqualTo("ICEBERG_REST_ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS");
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testCatalogHandlersExposesThreadCount() {
+    // Verify the constant is publicly accessible for server implementations
+    assertThat(CatalogHandlers.ASYNC_PLANNING_THREADS)
+        .as("CatalogHandlers should expose the configured thread count")
+        .isGreaterThanOrEqualTo(2);
+  }
+}