diff --git a/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/Configs.java b/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/Configs.java
index c64b795b6d5c..41078d6b54b5 100644
--- a/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/Configs.java
+++ b/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/Configs.java
@@ -91,6 +91,10 @@ public class Configs {
         "COSMOS.DEFAULT_SESSION_TOKEN_MISMATCH_MAXIMUM_BACKOFF_TIME_IN_MILLISECONDS";
     private static final int DEFAULT_SESSION_TOKEN_MISMATCH_MAXIMUM_BACKOFF_TIME_IN_MILLISECONDS = 50;
 
+    // Whether to process the response on a different thread
+    private static final String DEFAULT_SWITCH_OFF_IO_THREAD_FOR_RESPONSE_NAME = "COSMOS.SWITCH_OFF_IO_THREAD_FOR_RESPONSE";
+    private static final boolean DEFAULT_SWITCH_OFF_IO_THREAD_FOR_RESPONSE = false;
+
     public Configs() {
         this.sslContext = sslContextInit();
     }
@@ -252,6 +256,12 @@ public static int getSessionTokenMismatchMaximumBackoffTimeInMs() {
             DEFAULT_SESSION_TOKEN_MISMATCH_MAXIMUM_BACKOFF_TIME_IN_MILLISECONDS);
     }
 
+    public static boolean shouldSwitchOffIOThreadForResponse() {
+        return getJVMConfigAsBoolean(
+            DEFAULT_SWITCH_OFF_IO_THREAD_FOR_RESPONSE_NAME,
+            DEFAULT_SWITCH_OFF_IO_THREAD_FOR_RESPONSE);
+    }
+
     private static int getJVMConfigAsInt(String propName, int defaultValue) {
         String propValue = System.getProperty(propName);
         return getIntValue(propValue, defaultValue);
diff --git a/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/CosmosSchedulers.java b/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/CosmosSchedulers.java
index e01014e88b91..b2f4026df29a 100644
--- a/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/CosmosSchedulers.java
+++ b/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/CosmosSchedulers.java
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@
 
 public class CosmosSchedulers {
     private final static String COSMOS_PARALLEL_THREAD_NAME =  "cosmos-parallel";
+    private final static String TRANSPORT_RESPONSE_BOUNDED_ELASTIC_THREAD_NAME = "transport-response-bounded-elastic";
+    private final static int TTL_FOR_SCHEDULER_WORKER_IN_SECONDS = 60; // same as BoundedElasticScheduler.DEFAULT_TTL_SECONDS
 
     // Using a custom parallel scheduler to be able to schedule retries etc.
     // without being vulnerable to scenarios where applications abuse the
@@ -16,4 +18,13 @@ public class CosmosSchedulers {
         COSMOS_PARALLEL_THREAD_NAME,
         Schedulers.DEFAULT_POOL_SIZE,
         true);
+
+    // Custom bounded elastic scheduler to switch off IO thread to process response.
+    public final static Scheduler TRANSPORT_RESPONSE_BOUNDED_ELASTIC = Schedulers.newBoundedElastic(
+        Schedulers.DEFAULT_BOUNDED_ELASTIC_SIZE,
+        Schedulers.DEFAULT_BOUNDED_ELASTIC_QUEUESIZE,
+        TRANSPORT_RESPONSE_BOUNDED_ELASTIC_THREAD_NAME,
+        TTL_FOR_SCHEDULER_WORKER_IN_SECONDS,
+        true
+    );
 }
diff --git a/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/directconnectivity/TransportClient.java b/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/directconnectivity/TransportClient.java
index 5a5d40998fc8..14dc94e5f7dd 100644
--- a/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/directconnectivity/TransportClient.java
+++ b/sdk/cosmos/azure-cosmos/src/main/java/com/azure/cosmos/implementation/directconnectivity/TransportClient.java
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 
 package com.azure.cosmos.implementation.directconnectivity;
 
+import com.azure.cosmos.implementation.Configs;
+import com.azure.cosmos.implementation.CosmosSchedulers;
 import com.azure.cosmos.implementation.RxDocumentServiceRequest;
 import com.azure.cosmos.implementation.apachecommons.lang.StringUtils;
 import com.azure.cosmos.implementation.throughputControl.ThroughputControlStore;
@@ -15,6 +17,7 @@
 // signature for backwards compatibility purposes.
 @SuppressWarnings("try")
 public abstract class TransportClient implements AutoCloseable {
+    private final boolean switchOffIOThreadForResponse = Configs.shouldSwitchOffIOThreadForResponse();
     private ThroughputControlStore throughputControlStore;
 
     public void enableThroughputControl(ThroughputControlStore throughputControlStore) {
@@ -26,16 +29,29 @@ public Mono<StoreResponse> invokeResourceOperationAsync(Uri physicalAddress, RxD
         if (StringUtils.isEmpty(request.requestContext.resourcePhysicalAddress)) {
             request.requestContext.resourcePhysicalAddress = physicalAddress.toString();
         }
+
         if (this.throughputControlStore != null) {
-            return this.throughputControlStore.processRequest(
-                request,
-                Mono.defer(() -> this.invokeStoreAsync(physicalAddress, request)));
+            return this.invokeStoreWithThroughputControlAsync(physicalAddress, request);
         }
 
-        return this.invokeStoreAsync(physicalAddress, request);
+        return this.invokeStoreInternalAsync(physicalAddress, request);
     }
 
     protected abstract Mono<StoreResponse> invokeStoreAsync(
         Uri physicalAddress,
         RxDocumentServiceRequest request);
+
+    private Mono<StoreResponse> invokeStoreWithThroughputControlAsync(Uri physicalAddress, RxDocumentServiceRequest request) {
+        return this.throughputControlStore.processRequest(
+            request,
+            Mono.defer(() -> this.invokeStoreInternalAsync(physicalAddress, request)));
+    }
+
+    private Mono<StoreResponse> invokeStoreInternalAsync(Uri physicalAddress, RxDocumentServiceRequest request) {
+        if (switchOffIOThreadForResponse) {
+            return this.invokeStoreAsync(physicalAddress, request).publishOn(CosmosSchedulers.TRANSPORT_RESPONSE_BOUNDED_ELASTIC);
+        }
+
+        return this.invokeStoreAsync(physicalAddress, request);
+    }
 }