diff --git a/httomo/runner/task_runner.py b/httomo/runner/task_runner.py
index 80aade769..cf82ece23 100644
--- a/httomo/runner/task_runner.py
+++ b/httomo/runner/task_runner.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import time
 from typing import Any, Dict, Literal, Optional, List, Tuple, Union
 import os
+import resource
 
 import tqdm
 from mpi4py import MPI
@@ -9,7 +10,10 @@
 import httomo.globals
 from httomo.data.dataset_store import DataSetStoreWriter
 from httomo.method_wrappers.save_intermediate import SaveIntermediateFilesWrapper
-from httomo.runner.dataset_store_backing import determine_store_backing
+from httomo.runner.dataset_store_backing import (
+    determine_store_backing,
+    estimate_section_memory,
+)
 from httomo.runner.method_wrapper import MethodWrapper
 from httomo.runner.block_split import BlockSplitter
 from httomo.runner.dataset import DataSetBlock
@@ -20,7 +24,12 @@
     ReadableDataSetSink,
 )
 from httomo.utils import save_2d_snapshot
-from httomo.runner.gpu_utils import get_available_gpu_memory, gpumem_cleanup
+from httomo.runner.gpu_utils import (
+    get_available_gpu_memory,
+    gpumem_cleanup,
+    gpu_enabled,
+    xp,
+)
 from httomo.runner.monitoring_interface import MonitoringInterface
 from httomo.runner.pipeline import Pipeline
 from httomo.runner.section import (
@@ -36,6 +45,7 @@
     log_exception,
     log_once,
     log_rank,
+    get_available_system_memory_bytes,
 )
 import numpy as np
 
@@ -62,7 +72,25 @@ def __init__(
         self.source: Optional[DataSetSource] = None
         self.sink: Optional[Union[DataSetSink, ReadableDataSetSink]] = None
 
-        self._memory_limit_bytes = memory_limit_bytes
+        available_system_memory = np.zeros((1,), dtype=np.int64)
+        global_available_system_memory = np.empty_like(available_system_memory)
+        # Rank 0 queries memory
+        if self.comm.rank == 0:
+            available_system_memory[0] = get_available_system_memory_bytes()
+        self.comm.Allreduce(
+            [available_system_memory, MPI.INT64_T],
+            [global_available_system_memory, MPI.INT64_T],
+            MPI.MAX,
+        )
+        if memory_limit_bytes == 0:
+            self._memory_limit_bytes = global_available_system_memory[0]
+        else:
+            if memory_limit_bytes > global_available_system_memory[0]:
+                log_once(
+                    f"WARNING: Memory limit set is larger than available system memory ({memory_limit_bytes} > {global_available_system_memory[0]})",
+                )
+            self._memory_limit_bytes = memory_limit_bytes
+
         self._pipeline_inspector()
         self._sections = self._sectionize()
 
@@ -332,6 +360,7 @@ def _prepare(self):
         )
         self._check_params_for_sweep()
         self._load_datasets()
+        self._setup_pinned_memory_pool()
 
     def _load_datasets(self):
         start_time = self._log_task_start(
@@ -349,6 +378,52 @@ def _load_datasets(self):
             self.pipeline.loader.package_name,
         )
 
+    def _setup_pinned_memory_pool(self):
+        if not gpu_enabled:
+            return
+
+        # Calculate peak on every rank
+        rank_peak_estimated_memory_bytes = np.zeros(shape=(1,), dtype=np.int64)
+        for i in range(len(self._sections)):
+            assert self.source is not None
+            section_memory = estimate_section_memory(
+                nprocs=self.comm.size,
+                rank=self.comm.rank,
+                allgather_func=self.comm.allgather,
+                dtype=self.source.dtype if i == 0 else np.float32,
+                global_shape=self.source.global_shape,
+                sections=self._sections,
+                section_idx=i,
+                consider_pinned_memory_pool=True,
+            )
+            rank_peak_estimated_memory_bytes[0] = max(
+                rank_peak_estimated_memory_bytes[0], section_memory
+            )
+
+        # Select maximum peak of all ranks
+        global_peak_estimated_memory_bytes = np.zeros_like(
+            rank_peak_estimated_memory_bytes
+        )
+        self.comm.Allreduce(
+            [rank_peak_estimated_memory_bytes * self.comm.size, MPI.INT64_T],
+            [global_peak_estimated_memory_bytes, MPI.INT64_T],
+            MPI.MAX,
+        )
+
+        # Apply decision on all ranks
+        if self._memory_limit_bytes >= global_peak_estimated_memory_bytes[0]:
+            log_once(
+                f"Estimated CPU memory peak under limit, enabling CuPy pinned memory pool ({self._memory_limit_bytes} >= {global_peak_estimated_memory_bytes[0]})",
+                level=logging.DEBUG,
+            )
+        else:
+            xp.get_default_pinned_memory_pool().free_all_blocks()
+            xp.cuda.set_pinned_memory_allocator(None)
+            log_once(
+                f"Estimated CPU memory peak over limit, disabling CuPy pinned memory pool ({self._memory_limit_bytes} < {global_peak_estimated_memory_bytes[0]})",
+                level=logging.DEBUG,
+            )
+
     def _execute_method(
         self, method: MethodWrapper, block: DataSetBlock
     ) -> DataSetBlock:
diff --git a/httomo/utils.py b/httomo/utils.py
index cd1de10ef..15d8c498a 100644
--- a/httomo/utils.py
+++ b/httomo/utils.py
@@ -415,3 +415,11 @@ def clp2(x: int) -> int:
     x |= x >> 16
     x |= x >> 32
     return x + 1
+
+
+def get_available_system_memory_bytes(safety_margin_percent: float = 10):
+    # First two lines of 'free -t -b':
+    #                total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
+    # Mem:     33413799936 10897051648 11293478912   303587328 11639463936 22516748288
+    available_system_memory = int(os.popen("free -t -b").readlines()[1].split()[-1])
+    return int(available_system_memory * (1 - safety_margin_percent / 100))