diff --git a/cmd/crio/config.go b/cmd/crio/config.go
index 5d61a02e..bcd41042 100644
--- a/cmd/crio/config.go
+++ b/cmd/crio/config.go
@@ -98,6 +98,9 @@ apparmor_profile = "{{ .ApparmorProfile }}"
 # for the runtime.
 cgroup_manager = "{{ .CgroupManager }}"
 
+# pids_limit is the number of processes allowed in a container
+pids_limit = {{ .PidsLimit }}
+
 # The "crio.image" table contains settings pertaining to the
 # management of OCI images.
 [crio.image]
diff --git a/cmd/crio/main.go b/cmd/crio/main.go
index 6d575c27..602d8174 100644
--- a/cmd/crio/main.go
+++ b/cmd/crio/main.go
@@ -103,6 +103,9 @@ func mergeConfig(config *server.Config, ctx *cli.Context) error {
 	if ctx.GlobalIsSet("cgroup-manager") {
 		config.CgroupManager = ctx.GlobalString("cgroup-manager")
 	}
+	if ctx.GlobalIsSet("pids-limit") {
+		config.PidsLimit = ctx.GlobalInt64("pids-limit")
+	}
 	if ctx.GlobalIsSet("cni-config-dir") {
 		config.NetworkDir = ctx.GlobalString("cni-config-dir")
 	}
@@ -239,6 +242,11 @@ func main() {
 			Name:  "cgroup-manager",
 			Usage: "cgroup manager (cgroupfs or systemd)",
 		},
+		cli.Int64Flag{
+			Name:  "pids-limit",
+			Value: server.DefaultPidsLimit,
+			Usage: "maximum number of processes allowed in a container",
+		},
 		cli.StringFlag{
 			Name:  "cni-config-dir",
 			Usage: "CNI configuration files directory",
diff --git a/docs/crio.8.md b/docs/crio.8.md
index 0fb0131f..904064b8 100644
--- a/docs/crio.8.md
+++ b/docs/crio.8.md
@@ -91,6 +91,9 @@ set the CPU profile file path
 **--pause-image**=""
   Image which contains the pause executable (default: "kubernetes/pause")
 
+**--pids-limit**=""
+  Maximum number of processes allowed in a container (default: 1024)
+
 **--root**=""
   CRIO root dir (default: "/var/lib/containers/storage")
 
diff --git a/docs/crio.conf.5.md b/docs/crio.conf.5.md
index 07950d70..93c30ebf 100644
--- a/docs/crio.conf.5.md
+++ b/docs/crio.conf.5.md
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@ The `crio` table supports the following options:
 **conmon_env**=[]
   Environment variable list for conmon process (default: ["PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin",])
 
+**pids_limit**=""
+  Maximum number of processes allowed in a container (default: 1024)
+
 **runtime**=""
   OCI runtime path (default: "/usr/bin/runc")
 
diff --git a/server/config.go b/server/config.go
index c15e62e7..c158b043 100644
--- a/server/config.go
+++ b/server/config.go
@@ -43,6 +43,12 @@ const (
 	ImageVolumesIgnore ImageVolumesType = "ignore"
 )
 
+const (
+	// DefaultPidsLimit is the default value for maximum number of processes
+	// allowed inside a container
+	DefaultPidsLimit = 1024
+)
+
 // This structure is necessary to fake the TOML tables when parsing,
 // while also not requiring a bunch of layered structs for no good
 // reason.
@@ -133,6 +139,10 @@ type RuntimeConfig struct {
 	// CgroupManager is the manager implementation name which is used to
 	// handle cgroups for containers.
 	CgroupManager string `toml:"cgroup_manager"`
+
+	// PidsLimit is the number of processes each container is restricted to
+	// by the cgroup process number controller.
+	PidsLimit int64 `toml:"pids_limit"`
 }
 
 // ImageConfig represents the "crio.image" TOML config table.
@@ -261,6 +271,7 @@ func DefaultConfig() *Config {
 			SeccompProfile:  seccompProfilePath,
 			ApparmorProfile: apparmorProfileName,
 			CgroupManager:   cgroupManager,
+			PidsLimit:       DefaultPidsLimit,
 		},
 		ImageConfig: ImageConfig{
 			DefaultTransport:    defaultTransport,
diff --git a/server/container_create.go b/server/container_create.go
index d336563a..28b75acc 100644
--- a/server/container_create.go
+++ b/server/container_create.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-o/server/apparmor"
 	"github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-o/server/seccomp"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
+	"github.com/opencontainers/runc/libcontainer/cgroups"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/runc/libcontainer/devices"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/runc/libcontainer/user"
 	rspec "github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/specs-go"
@@ -323,6 +324,9 @@ func (s *Server) createSandboxContainer(ctx context.Context, containerID string,
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
+	// Add cgroup mount so container process can introspect its own limits
+	specgen.AddCgroupsMount("ro")
+
 	if err := addDevices(sb, containerConfig, &specgen); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -673,6 +677,12 @@ func (s *Server) createSandboxContainer(ctx context.Context, containerID string,
 		}
 	}
 
+	// Set up pids limit if pids cgroup is mounted
+	_, err = cgroups.FindCgroupMountpoint("pids")
+	if err == nil {
+		specgen.SetLinuxResourcesPidsLimit(s.config.PidsLimit)
+	}
+
 	// by default, the root path is an empty string. set it now.
 	specgen.SetRootPath(mountPoint)
 
diff --git a/test/cgroups.bats b/test/cgroups.bats
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..44d1acfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/cgroups.bats
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bats
+
+load helpers
+
+function teardown() {
+	cleanup_test
+}
+
+@test "pids limit" {
+	if ! grep pids /proc/self/cgroup; then
+		skip "pids cgroup controller is not mounted"
+	fi
+	PIDS_LIMIT=1234 start_crio
+	run crioctl pod run --config "$TESTDATA"/sandbox_config.json
+	echo "$output"
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	pod_id="$output"
+	pids_limit_config=$(cat "$TESTDATA"/container_config.json | python -c 'import json,sys;obj=json.load(sys.stdin); obj["command"] = ["/bin/sleep", "600"]; json.dump(obj, sys.stdout)')
+	echo "$pids_limit_config" > "$TESTDIR"/container_pids_limit.json
+	run crioctl ctr create --config "$TESTDIR"/container_pids_limit.json --pod "$pod_id"
+	echo "$output"
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	ctr_id="$output"
+	run crioctl ctr start --id "$ctr_id"
+	echo "$output"
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	run crioctl ctr execsync --id "$ctr_id" cat /sys/fs/cgroup/pids/pids.max
+	echo "$output"
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	[[ "$output" =~ "1234" ]]
+	run crioctl pod stop --id "$pod_id"
+	echo "$output"
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	run crioctl pod remove --id "$pod_id"
+	echo "$output"
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	cleanup_ctrs
+	cleanup_pods
+	stop_crio
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/helpers.bash b/test/helpers.bash
index f7703cea..8bf17c62 100644
--- a/test/helpers.bash
+++ b/test/helpers.bash
@@ -53,6 +53,8 @@ DEFAULT_LOG_PATH=/var/log/crio/pods
 CGROUP_MANAGER=${CGROUP_MANAGER:-cgroupfs}
 # Image volumes handling
 IMAGE_VOLUMES=${IMAGE_VOLUMES:-mkdir}
+# Container pids limit
+PIDS_LIMIT=${PIDS_LIMIT:-1024}
 
 TESTDIR=$(mktemp -d)
 if [ -e /usr/sbin/selinuxenabled ] && /usr/sbin/selinuxenabled; then
@@ -203,7 +205,7 @@ function start_crio() {
 	"$COPYIMG_BINARY" --root "$TESTDIR/crio" $STORAGE_OPTS --runroot "$TESTDIR/crio-run" --image-name=mrunalp/image-volume-test --import-from=dir:"$ARTIFACTS_PATH"/image-volume-test-image --add-name=docker.io/library/mrunalp/image-volume-test --signature-policy="$INTEGRATION_ROOT"/policy.json
 	"$COPYIMG_BINARY" --root "$TESTDIR/crio" $STORAGE_OPTS --runroot "$TESTDIR/crio-run" --image-name=busybox:latest --import-from=dir:"$ARTIFACTS_PATH"/busybox-image --add-name=docker.io/library/busybox:latest --signature-policy="$INTEGRATION_ROOT"/policy.json
 	"$COPYIMG_BINARY" --root "$TESTDIR/crio" $STORAGE_OPTS --runroot "$TESTDIR/crio-run" --image-name=runcom/stderr-test:latest --import-from=dir:"$ARTIFACTS_PATH"/stderr-test --add-name=docker.io/runcom/stderr-test:latest --signature-policy="$INTEGRATION_ROOT"/policy.json
-	"$CRIO_BINARY" --conmon "$CONMON_BINARY" --listen "$CRIO_SOCKET" --cgroup-manager "$CGROUP_MANAGER" --runtime "$RUNTIME_BINARY" --root "$TESTDIR/crio" --runroot "$TESTDIR/crio-run" $STORAGE_OPTS --seccomp-profile "$seccomp" --apparmor-profile "$apparmor" --cni-config-dir "$CRIO_CNI_CONFIG" --signature-policy "$INTEGRATION_ROOT"/policy.json --image-volumes "$IMAGE_VOLUMES" --config /dev/null config >$CRIO_CONFIG
+	"$CRIO_BINARY" --conmon "$CONMON_BINARY" --listen "$CRIO_SOCKET" --cgroup-manager "$CGROUP_MANAGER" --runtime "$RUNTIME_BINARY" --root "$TESTDIR/crio" --runroot "$TESTDIR/crio-run" $STORAGE_OPTS --seccomp-profile "$seccomp" --apparmor-profile "$apparmor" --cni-config-dir "$CRIO_CNI_CONFIG" --signature-policy "$INTEGRATION_ROOT"/policy.json --image-volumes "$IMAGE_VOLUMES" --pids-limit "$PIDS_LIMIT" --config /dev/null config >$CRIO_CONFIG
 
 	# Prepare the CNI configuration files, we're running with non host networking by default
 	if [[ -n "$4" ]]; then