diff --git a/src/app/api/freshness/route.ts b/src/app/api/freshness/route.ts
index f2584ced9..636133ea8 100644
--- a/src/app/api/freshness/route.ts
+++ b/src/app/api/freshness/route.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { unstable_cache } from "next/cache";
-import { Prometheus } from "@/lib/prometheus";
+import { Prometheus, extractMetricName } from "@/lib/prometheus";
 import { getSpecs } from "@/lib/spec";
 import { clientKey, rateLimit, tooManyRequests } from "@/lib/rate-limit";
 import { stripQueryRedirect } from "@/lib/canonical-query";
@@ -7,9 +7,10 @@ import { stripQueryRedirect } from "@/lib/canonical-query";
 export const runtime = "nodejs";
 
 /**
- * Ultra-light freshness probe. One Prometheus instant query per spec
- * (`scalar(time() - max(timestamp(<metric>)))`), returning just the
- * resolved data timestamp per slug.
+ * Ultra-light freshness probe. One Prometheus instant query for every
+ * spec's probe metric (`time() - max(timestamp(<metric>))` per metric,
+ * OR-ed into one union),
+ * returning just the resolved data timestamp per slug.
  *
  * Separate from /api/citable so the LiveIndicator can poll cheaply
  * without re-running the heavy spec → rankings → sparkline → series
@@ -42,32 +43,40 @@ const computeFreshness = unstable_cache(
     );
     const fallback = process.env.PROMETHEUS_URL;
 
-    const entries = await Promise.all(
-      specs.map(async (spec) => {
-        const url = spec.prometheus?.url ?? fallback;
-        if (!url) return [spec.slug, null] as const;
-        // Use the first provider's p50 query as the freshness probe. Same
-        // logic as src/lib/spec.ts tryLoadLive - keeps the asOf reported
-        // here consistent with what /api/citable would compute.
-        const probe = spec.providers.find((p) => p.queries?.p50)?.queries?.p50;
-        if (!probe) return [spec.slug, null] as const;
+    // Use the first provider's p50 query as the freshness probe. Same
+    // logic as src/lib/spec.ts tryLoadLive - keeps the asOf reported
+    // here consistent with what /api/citable would compute.
+    //
+    // One query per Prom instance, not one per spec: the per-spec fan-out
+    // was ~98 queries per fill, 509k a day, 30% of every outbound call
+    // the project made (2026-10-10), and each one bills as an
+    // Observability Event.
+    const metricsByUrl = new Map<string, Map<string, string>>();
+    for (const spec of specs) {
+      const url = spec.prometheus?.url ?? fallback;
+      const probe = spec.providers.find((p) => p.queries?.p50)?.queries?.p50;
+      const metric = probe ? extractMetricName(probe) : null;
+      if (!url || !metric) continue;
+      if (!metricsByUrl.has(url)) metricsByUrl.set(url, new Map());
+      metricsByUrl.get(url)!.set(spec.slug, metric);
+    }
+
+    const freshness: Record<string, number> = {};
+    await Promise.all(
+      [...metricsByUrl].map(async ([url, slugToMetric]) => {
         try {
-          const prom = new Prometheus(url);
-          const ageSec = await prom.dataAgeSec(probe);
-          if (ageSec == null || !Number.isFinite(ageSec) || ageSec < 0) {
-            return [spec.slug, null] as const;
+          const ages = await new Prometheus(url).dataAgesSec([...slugToMetric.values()]);
+          const now = Date.now();
+          for (const [slug, metric] of slugToMetric) {
+            const ageSec = ages.get(metric);
+            if (ageSec == null || ageSec < 0) continue;
+            freshness[slug] = now - Math.floor(ageSec * 1000);
           }
-          return [spec.slug, Date.now() - Math.floor(ageSec * 1000)] as const;
         } catch {
-          return [spec.slug, null] as const;
+          // this instance's specs stay absent, as a failed probe did before
         }
       }),
     );
-
-    const freshness: Record<string, number> = {};
-    for (const [slug, asOf] of entries) {
-      if (asOf != null) freshness[slug] = asOf;
-    }
     // Store fallback: the Vercel site has no PROMETHEUS_URL (Prom lives
     // on a private VPS), so on prod every probe above fails and this
     // map came back EMPTY since launch, blanking the LiveIndicator.
diff --git a/src/lib/prometheus.test.ts b/src/lib/prometheus.test.ts
index 7bdc699ea..a03099c1d 100644
--- a/src/lib/prometheus.test.ts
+++ b/src/lib/prometheus.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { describe, expect, test } from "bun:test";
-import { extractMetricName, trimScalar } from "./prometheus";
+import { Prometheus, extractMetricName, trimScalar } from "./prometheus";
 
 describe("extractMetricName", () => {
   test("plain metric with label selector", () => {
@@ -144,3 +144,36 @@ describe("trimScalar", () => {
     expect(trimScalar(Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY)).toBeNull();
   });
 });
+
+describe("dataAgesSec", () => {
+  test("one query for every metric, keyed back by name", async () => {
+    const seen: string[] = [];
+    const realFetch = globalThis.fetch;
+    globalThis.fetch = (async (input: string | URL | Request) => {
+      seen.push(new URL(String(input)).searchParams.get("query") ?? "");
+      return Response.json({
+        status: "success",
+        data: {
+          resultType: "vector",
+          result: [
+            { metric: { m: "a_ms" }, value: [1, "12.5"] },
+            { metric: { m: "b_ms" }, value: [1, "NaN"] },
+          ],
+        },
+      });
+    }) as typeof fetch;
+    try {
+      const ages = await new Prometheus("http://localhost:9090").dataAgesSec([
+        "a_ms",
+        "b_ms",
+        "a_ms",
+        'bad"name',
+      ]);
+      expect(seen).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(seen[0]).toBe('label_replace(time() - max(timestamp(a_ms)), "m", "a_ms", "", "") or label_replace(time() - max(timestamp(b_ms)), "m", "b_ms", "", "")');
+      expect([...ages]).toEqual([["a_ms", 12.5]]);
+    } finally {
+      globalThis.fetch = realFetch;
+    }
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/lib/prometheus.ts b/src/lib/prometheus.ts
index 1849e43d9..220a84032 100644
--- a/src/lib/prometheus.ts
+++ b/src/lib/prometheus.ts
@@ -112,6 +112,29 @@ export class Prometheus {
     return this.scalar(`scalar(time() - max(timestamp(${metric})))`);
   }
 
+  /** `dataAgeSec` for many metrics in ONE instant query: a union of
+   *  per-metric terms, each labelled with its name. `timestamp()` has to
+   *  wrap the bare selector: around anything else (a `label_replace`, a
+   *  regex selector inside one) it returns the evaluation time, so every
+   *  recording rule read as 0 s old. Metrics with no samples are absent
+   *  from the map. Throws on a Prom error, like `query`. */
+  async dataAgesSec(metrics: string[]): Promise<Map<string, number>> {
+    const ages = new Map<string, number>();
+    const names = [...new Set(metrics)].filter((m) => /^[a-zA-Z_:][a-zA-Z0-9_:]*$/.test(m));
+    if (names.length === 0) return ages;
+    const res = await this.query(
+      names
+        .map((m) => `label_replace(time() - max(timestamp(${m})), "m", "${m}", "", "")`)
+        .join(" or "),
+    );
+    if (res.resultType !== "vector") return ages;
+    for (const s of res.result) {
+      const age = Number(s.value[1]);
+      if (s.metric.m && Number.isFinite(age)) ages.set(s.metric.m, age);
+    }
+    return ages;
+  }
+
   /** Convenience: scalar number from any instant query, or null if empty
    *  / error. Errors are logged with the query that failed and the
    *  underlying reason ("empty", "timeout", network error, parse error)