diff --git a/src/video_core/renderer_vulkan/vk_pipeline_cache.cpp b/src/video_core/renderer_vulkan/vk_pipeline_cache.cpp
index 25ed6ada9d..fccd64235f 100644
--- a/src/video_core/renderer_vulkan/vk_pipeline_cache.cpp
+++ b/src/video_core/renderer_vulkan/vk_pipeline_cache.cpp
@@ -269,8 +269,9 @@ size_t GetTotalPipelineWorkers() {
     const size_t max_core_threads =
         std::max<size_t>(static_cast<size_t>(std::thread::hardware_concurrency()), 2ULL) - 1ULL;
 #ifdef ANDROID
-    // Leave at least a few cores free in android
-    constexpr size_t free_cores = 3ULL;
+    // Leave at least a few cores free on Android; reserve two instead of three so
+    // pipeline compilation can consume one more worker thread for testing.
+    constexpr size_t free_cores = 2ULL;
     if (max_core_threads <= free_cores) {
         return 1ULL;
     }