diff --git a/src/meta/src/controller/fragment.rs b/src/meta/src/controller/fragment.rs
index a79b890cade20..195612bfbd8be 100644
--- a/src/meta/src/controller/fragment.rs
+++ b/src/meta/src/controller/fragment.rs
@@ -720,11 +720,14 @@ impl CatalogController {
 
     pub async fn get_max_parallelism_by_id(&self, job_id: ObjectId) -> MetaResult<usize> {
         let inner = self.inner.read().await;
-        let job = StreamingJob::find_by_id(job_id)
+        let max_parallelism: i32 = StreamingJob::find_by_id(job_id)
+            .select_only()
+            .column(streaming_job::Column::MaxParallelism)
+            .into_tuple()
             .one(&inner.db)
             .await?
             .ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("job {} not found in database", job_id))?;
-        Ok(job.max_parallelism as usize)
+        Ok(max_parallelism as usize)
     }
 
     /// Get all actor ids in the target streaming jobs.
diff --git a/src/meta/src/controller/streaming_job.rs b/src/meta/src/controller/streaming_job.rs
index 516adbf8b6c90..bfcb7830ec6e9 100644
--- a/src/meta/src/controller/streaming_job.rs
+++ b/src/meta/src/controller/streaming_job.rs
@@ -700,12 +700,33 @@ impl CatalogController {
             ));
         }
 
+        // 3. check parallelism.
+        let original_max_parallelism: i32 = StreamingJobModel::find_by_id(id as ObjectId)
+            .select_only()
+            .column(streaming_job::Column::MaxParallelism)
+            .into_tuple()
+            .one(&txn)
+            .await?
+            .ok_or_else(|| MetaError::catalog_id_not_found(ObjectType::Table.as_str(), id))?;
+
+        if original_max_parallelism != max_parallelism as i32 {
+            // We already override the max parallelism in `StreamFragmentGraph` before entering this function.
+            // This should not happen in normal cases.
+            bail!(
+                "cannot use a different max parallelism \
+                 when altering or creating/dropping a sink into an existing table, \
+                 original: {}, new: {}",
+                original_max_parallelism,
+                max_parallelism
+            );
+        }
+
         let parallelism = match specified_parallelism {
             None => StreamingParallelism::Adaptive,
             Some(n) => StreamingParallelism::Fixed(n.get() as _),
         };
 
-        // 3. create streaming object for new replace table.
+        // 4. create streaming object for new replace table.
         let obj_id = Self::create_streaming_job_obj(
             &txn,
             ObjectType::Table,
@@ -719,7 +740,7 @@ impl CatalogController {
         )
         .await?;
 
-        // 4. record dependency for new replace table.
+        // 5. record dependency for new replace table.
         ObjectDependency::insert(object_dependency::ActiveModel {
             oid: Set(id as _),
             used_by: Set(obj_id as _),
diff --git a/src/meta/src/rpc/ddl_controller.rs b/src/meta/src/rpc/ddl_controller.rs
index baffdbd72fba9..cec9efa323a46 100644
--- a/src/meta/src/rpc/ddl_controller.rs
+++ b/src/meta/src/rpc/ddl_controller.rs
@@ -1059,6 +1059,16 @@ impl DdlController {
                     ..
                 } = replace_table_info;
 
+                // Ensure the max parallelism unchanged before replacing table.
+                let original_max_parallelism = self
+                    .metadata_manager
+                    .get_job_max_parallelism(streaming_job.id().into())
+                    .await?;
+                let fragment_graph = PbStreamFragmentGraph {
+                    max_parallelism: original_max_parallelism as _,
+                    ..fragment_graph
+                };
+
                 let fragment_graph =
                     StreamFragmentGraph::new(&self.env, fragment_graph, &streaming_job)?;
                 streaming_job.set_table_fragment_id(fragment_graph.table_fragment_id());
@@ -1198,6 +1208,16 @@ impl DdlController {
                 panic!("additional replace table event only occurs when dropping sink into table")
             };
 
+            // Ensure the max parallelism unchanged before replacing table.
+            let original_max_parallelism = self
+                .metadata_manager
+                .get_job_max_parallelism(streaming_job.id().into())
+                .await?;
+            let fragment_graph = PbStreamFragmentGraph {
+                max_parallelism: original_max_parallelism as _,
+                ..fragment_graph
+            };
+
             let fragment_graph =
                 StreamFragmentGraph::new(&self.env, fragment_graph, &streaming_job)?;
             streaming_job.set_table_fragment_id(fragment_graph.table_fragment_id());
@@ -1344,6 +1364,16 @@ impl DdlController {
         let _reschedule_job_lock = self.stream_manager.reschedule_lock_read_guard().await;
         let ctx = StreamContext::from_protobuf(fragment_graph.get_ctx().unwrap());
 
+        // Ensure the max parallelism unchanged before replacing table.
+        let original_max_parallelism = self
+            .metadata_manager
+            .get_job_max_parallelism(streaming_job.id().into())
+            .await?;
+        let fragment_graph = PbStreamFragmentGraph {
+            max_parallelism: original_max_parallelism as _,
+            ..fragment_graph
+        };
+
         // 1. build fragment graph.
         let fragment_graph = StreamFragmentGraph::new(&self.env, fragment_graph, &streaming_job)?;
         streaming_job.set_table_fragment_id(fragment_graph.table_fragment_id());