diff --git a/litellm/constants.py b/litellm/constants.py
index 10c943656f7..0ed87b189a2 100644
--- a/litellm/constants.py
+++ b/litellm/constants.py
@@ -1904,6 +1904,7 @@ SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_CACHE_TTL: Final = 600
 SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_MISS_CACHE_TTL: Final = 30
 SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_CACHE_MAX_ITEMS: Final = 10000
 SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_QUERY_TIMEOUT_MS: Final = 5000
+SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_ROWS_PER_PROBE: Final = 100
 # Short TTL for negative MCP access-group existence lookups. Keeps unauthenticated
 # callers from forcing a DB query per request for unknown names, while bounding
 # staleness so a transient DB error (which surfaces as an empty list) cannot
diff --git a/litellm/proxy/spend_tracking/key_metadata_recovery.py b/litellm/proxy/spend_tracking/key_metadata_recovery.py
index 1686e055524..6c69572b12c 100644
--- a/litellm/proxy/spend_tracking/key_metadata_recovery.py
+++ b/litellm/proxy/spend_tracking/key_metadata_recovery.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ from litellm.constants import (
     SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_CACHE_TTL,
     SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_MISS_CACHE_TTL,
     SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_QUERY_TIMEOUT_MS,
+    SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_ROWS_PER_PROBE,
 )
 from litellm.litellm_core_utils.litellm_logging import is_valid_sha256_hash
 from litellm.proxy.utils import PrismaClient
@@ -48,10 +49,15 @@ def _named_spend_log_edge_row_sql(direction: Literal["ASC", "DESC"]) -> str:
             NULLIF(metadata->>'user_api_key_alias', '') AS key_alias,
             COALESCE(NULLIF(team_id, ''), NULLIF(metadata->>'user_api_key_team_id', '')) AS team_id,
             COALESCE(NULLIF("user", ''), NULLIF(metadata->>'user_api_key_user_id', '')) AS user_id
-        FROM "LiteLLM_SpendLogs"
-        WHERE api_key = keys.digest
-          AND "startTime" >= $2::timestamp
-          AND "startTime" < $3::timestamp
+        FROM (
+            SELECT "startTime", metadata, team_id, "user"
+            FROM "LiteLLM_SpendLogs"
+            WHERE api_key = keys.digest
+              AND "startTime" >= $2::timestamp
+              AND "startTime" < $3::timestamp
+            ORDER BY "startTime" {direction}
+            LIMIT {SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_ROWS_PER_PROBE}
+        ) edge
     ) named
     WHERE COALESCE(key_alias, user_id, team_id) IS NOT NULL
     ORDER BY "startTime" {direction}
@@ -68,8 +74,8 @@ SELECT keys.digest,
     first_row.user_id AS first_owner,
     last_row.user_id AS last_owner
 FROM unnest($1::text[]) AS keys(digest)
-CROSS JOIN LATERAL ({_named_spend_log_edge_row_sql("ASC")}) first_row
-CROSS JOIN LATERAL ({_named_spend_log_edge_row_sql("DESC")}) last_row
+LEFT JOIN LATERAL ({_named_spend_log_edge_row_sql("ASC")}) first_row ON true
+LEFT JOIN LATERAL ({_named_spend_log_edge_row_sql("DESC")}) last_row ON true
 """
 
 _SPEND_LOG_STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_SQL: Final = f"SET LOCAL statement_timeout = {SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_QUERY_TIMEOUT_MS}"
diff --git a/tests/test_litellm/proxy/spend_tracking/test_key_metadata_recovery.py b/tests/test_litellm/proxy/spend_tracking/test_key_metadata_recovery.py
index bf09649a89f..b9b5b83df0b 100644
--- a/tests/test_litellm/proxy/spend_tracking/test_key_metadata_recovery.py
+++ b/tests/test_litellm/proxy/spend_tracking/test_key_metadata_recovery.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ from litellm.constants import (
     SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_CACHE_TTL,
     SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_MISS_CACHE_TTL,
     SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_QUERY_TIMEOUT_MS,
+    SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_ROWS_PER_PROBE,
 )
 from litellm.proxy.spend_tracking.key_metadata_recovery import (
     attach_user_details,
@@ -741,6 +742,49 @@ async def test_recover_key_metadata_from_spend_logs_reads_two_rows_per_key_howev
     assert rows_read is not None and rows_read[0] <= 2 * len(owners)
 
 
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_recover_key_metadata_from_spend_logs_walks_a_bounded_number_of_nameless_rows_per_key(
+    _spend_logs_postgresql: psycopg.Connection,
+):
+    conn: Final = _spend_logs_postgresql
+    _create_spend_logs_table(conn)
+    nameless_rows: Final = 3 * SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_ROWS_PER_PROBE
+    named_late: Final[Mapping[str, str]] = {hash_token(f"cli-session-late-{i}"): f"user-{i}" for i in range(3)}
+    never_named: Final = frozenset(hash_token(f"cli-session-never-{i}") for i in range(3))
+    for digest in (*named_late, *never_named):
+        conn.execute(
+            """
+            INSERT INTO "LiteLLM_SpendLogs" (request_id, api_key, "startTime")
+            SELECT %(digest)s || '-' || g, %(digest)s, %(start)s + g * interval '1 minute'
+            FROM generate_series(1, %(rows)s) g
+            """,
+            {"digest": digest, "start": datetime(2026, 9, 7), "rows": nameless_rows},
+        )
+    for digest, owner in named_late.items():
+        conn.execute(
+            """
+            INSERT INTO "LiteLLM_SpendLogs" (request_id, api_key, "startTime", "user", metadata)
+            VALUES (%(digest)s || '-newest', %(digest)s, %(logged_at)s, %(owner)s,
+                jsonb_build_object('user_api_key_alias', 'cli-session-' || %(owner)s))
+            """,
+            {"digest": digest, "owner": owner, "logged_at": datetime(2026, 9, 9)},
+        )
+    conn.execute('ANALYZE "LiteLLM_SpendLogs"')
+    conn.commit()
+
+    result = await recover_key_metadata_from_spend_logs(
+        _psycopg_prisma(conn),
+        frozenset(named_late) | never_named,
+        (datetime(2026, 9, 7), datetime(2026, 9, 10)),
+        cache=InMemoryCache(),
+    )
+
+    assert {digest: meta.get("user_id") for digest, meta in result.items()} == named_late
+    rows_read: Final = conn.execute(_SPEND_LOG_ROWS_READ_IN_THIS_TRANSACTION_SQL).fetchone()  # pyright: ignore[reportArgumentType]  # SQL literal
+    assert rows_read is not None
+    assert rows_read[0] <= 2 * SPEND_LOG_KEY_METADATA_ROWS_PER_PROBE * (len(named_late) + len(never_named))
+
+
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
 async def test_recover_cli_session_key_metadata_names_the_owner_only_when_the_suffix_is_a_real_user():
     mock_prisma = MagicMock()