diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 70e2cafa2f..347ecf9cd7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ Releases are listed newest first.
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 - Added experimental PHP `eval()` support across macOS ARM64, Linux ARM64, and Linux x86_64. Eligible literal fragments are parsed at compile time and lowered to native EIR, including direct or scope-backed caller-local synchronization; dynamic strings and unsupported literal shapes fall back to the optional statically linked `elephc-magician` EvalIR interpreter. Within the supported eval subset, the fallback preserves caller/global scope updates, dynamic functions/classes/constants, callables, reflection, builtins, exceptions, ownership/COW behavior, and PHP-visible diagnostics without requiring PHP or the Zend Engine. Bridge linking is automatic when required and can be forced with `--with-eval`; generated builtin documentation now reports AOT and eval availability separately.
+- Fixed `--web --max-requests` crash-loop accounting (issue #516): workers that exit after a planned request-quota recycle now use a dedicated status that the master excludes from startup-death streaks, so sustained traffic with a low quota keeps respawning workers instead of shutting down the server; genuine setup failures, other exit codes, and signal deaths still feed the guard.
 
 ## [0.26.1]
 - Expanded flow-sensitive type narrowing for PHP's common guard patterns: `int|false` and other false-sentinel unions now preserve the literal `false` subtype and narrow to their success type after a divergent `=== false` guard, without incorrectly removing a full `bool` member; `=== null` and `is_null()` guards narrow nullable values; and stable object properties can be narrowed through `instanceof`, ternaries, and throw guards. Property facts are invalidated after writes or receiver rebindings and are not retained across property hooks or `__get`, whose repeated reads may differ.
diff --git a/crates/elephc-web/src/server.rs b/crates/elephc-web/src/server.rs
index e65df8fbb0..410718f00d 100644
--- a/crates/elephc-web/src/server.rs
+++ b/crates/elephc-web/src/server.rs
@@ -185,7 +185,8 @@ fn default_workers() -> usize {
     std::thread::available_parallelism().map(|n| n.get()).unwrap_or(1)
 }
 
-/// Forks one worker child that serves forever, returning the child pid in the
+/// Forks one worker child that serves until a planned `--max-requests` recycle
+/// (then exits with `worker::RECYCLE_EXIT_CODE`), returning the child pid in the
 /// master. The child restores default signal disposition and never returns. A
 /// fork failure aborts the whole process. Used for both initial spawn and respawn.
 fn spawn_worker(listen: &str, handler: extern "C" fn(), cfg: WorkerConfig) -> libc::pid_t {
@@ -197,12 +198,25 @@ fn spawn_worker(listen: &str, handler: extern "C" fn(), cfg: WorkerConfig) -> li
         0 => {
             reset_signal_handlers_to_default();
             worker::serve(listen, handler, cfg);
-            std::process::exit(0);
+            // serve() only returns when the worker stopped accepting on purpose
+            // after serving its --max-requests quota; exit with the recycle code
+            // so the reaper skips the crash-loop accounting for this death.
+            std::process::exit(worker::RECYCLE_EXIT_CODE);
         }
         pid => pid,
     }
 }
 
+/// Returns true when a reaped worker's `waitpid` status is a planned
+/// `--max-requests` recycle: a normal exit with `worker::RECYCLE_EXIT_CODE`.
+/// Signal deaths and every other exit code are real crashes and keep feeding
+/// the fast-death accounting. Without this distinction, sustained traffic with
+/// a small `--max-requests` recycles workers faster than `FAST_DEATH` and the
+/// master mistakes the healthy recycle churn for a startup crash loop.
+fn is_planned_recycle(status: libc::c_int) -> bool {
+    libc::WIFEXITED(status) && libc::WEXITSTATUS(status) == worker::RECYCLE_EXIT_CODE
+}
+
 /// Server entry: parse args, prefork workers, supervise. Returns an exit code.
 ///
 /// # Safety
@@ -256,21 +270,26 @@ pub extern "C" fn elephc_web_run(
                 continue;
             }
             // Crash-loop guard: if workers keep dying immediately after spawn,
-            // stop respawning (otherwise a failed bind fork-loops forever).
-            if spawned_at.map(|t| t.elapsed() < FAST_DEATH).unwrap_or(false) {
-                fast_deaths += 1;
-                if fast_deaths >= MAX_FAST_DEATHS {
-                    eprintln!(
-                        "elephc-web: {} workers died on startup (likely a bad --listen or a \
-                         handler crashing every request); giving up",
-                        fast_deaths
-                    );
-                    break;
+            // stop respawning (otherwise a failed bind fork-loops forever). A
+            // planned --max-requests recycle is exempt: it neither increments
+            // nor resets the streak, so healthy recycle churn cannot trip the
+            // guard yet also cannot mask a real crash loop interleaved with it.
+            if !is_planned_recycle(status) {
+                if spawned_at.map(|t| t.elapsed() < FAST_DEATH).unwrap_or(false) {
+                    fast_deaths += 1;
+                    if fast_deaths >= MAX_FAST_DEATHS {
+                        eprintln!(
+                            "elephc-web: {} workers died on startup (likely a bad --listen or a \
+                             handler crashing every request); giving up",
+                            fast_deaths
+                        );
+                        break;
+                    }
+                } else {
+                    fast_deaths = 0;
                 }
-            } else {
-                fast_deaths = 0;
             }
-            // A worker died unexpectedly: replace it to keep the pool at N.
+            // The worker is gone (crash or recycle): replace it to keep the pool at N.
             let new_pid = spawn_worker(&args.listen, handler, args.worker_config());
             children.push((new_pid, Instant::now()));
         } else if pid == -1 {
@@ -291,3 +310,43 @@ pub extern "C" fn elephc_web_run(
     }
     0
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// Builds a `waitpid` status word for a normal exit with `code`. Both
+    /// supported unix families (Linux and macOS) encode a normal exit as
+    /// `code << 8` with zeroed low bits, which is what `WIFEXITED`/`WEXITSTATUS`
+    /// decode.
+    fn exited_status(code: i32) -> libc::c_int {
+        (code & 0xff) << 8
+    }
+
+    /// A normal exit with the recycle code must be classified as a planned
+    /// recycle so the crash-loop guard skips it (regression for issue #516:
+    /// sustained traffic with a small --max-requests shut the server down).
+    #[test]
+    fn recycle_exit_is_planned() {
+        assert!(is_planned_recycle(exited_status(worker::RECYCLE_EXIT_CODE)));
+    }
+
+    /// Clean exits and error exits are NOT planned recycles: they must keep
+    /// feeding the fast-death accounting so real crash loops still trip the guard.
+    #[test]
+    fn other_exit_codes_are_not_planned() {
+        assert!(!is_planned_recycle(exited_status(0)));
+        assert!(!is_planned_recycle(exited_status(1)));
+        assert!(!is_planned_recycle(exited_status(2)));
+    }
+
+    /// A signal death is never a planned recycle, even when the raw status bits
+    /// could coincide numerically: `WIFEXITED` must gate the exit-code check.
+    /// `waitpid` encodes "killed by signal N" as N in the low 7 bits.
+    #[test]
+    fn signal_death_is_not_planned() {
+        assert!(!is_planned_recycle(libc::SIGSEGV));
+        assert!(!is_planned_recycle(libc::SIGKILL));
+        assert!(!is_planned_recycle(libc::SIGTERM));
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/elephc-web/src/worker.rs b/crates/elephc-web/src/worker.rs
index 263a4802a4..6c08c92b23 100644
--- a/crates/elephc-web/src/worker.rs
+++ b/crates/elephc-web/src/worker.rs
@@ -45,6 +45,14 @@ fn reuseport_listener(addr: SocketAddr) -> std::io::Result<std::net::TcpListener
 /// Process-local (each forked worker has its own copy starting at 0).
 static SERVED: AtomicUsize = AtomicUsize::new(0);
 
+/// Exit code a worker child uses for a planned `--max-requests` recycle.
+/// Distinct from 0 (clean exit), 1 (worker setup/handler errors), and 2 (usage
+/// errors) so the master can tell an intentional recycle from a genuine crash:
+/// under sustained traffic a worker can serve its whole quota in well under the
+/// master's fast-death window, and counting that as a crash-on-startup would
+/// shut the server down. Checked by `server::is_planned_recycle`.
+pub(crate) const RECYCLE_EXIT_CODE: i32 = 86;
+
 /// Per-request handler time limit in seconds (`0` = none), read by `run_handler`
 /// to arm a `SIGALRM` watchdog around the blocking `handler()` call.
 static MAX_EXEC_SECS: AtomicU32 = AtomicU32::new(0);
diff --git a/tests/web_tests.rs b/tests/web_tests.rs
index bb546ef8fe..89488116b8 100644
--- a/tests/web_tests.rs
+++ b/tests/web_tests.rs
@@ -850,6 +850,47 @@ fn web_max_requests_recycles_and_keeps_serving() {
     let _ = child.wait();
 }
 
+/// Regression for issue #516 (caveat 2): planned --max-requests recycles used to
+/// count toward the master's fast-death crash-loop guard, so sustained traffic
+/// recycled a worker >10 times in under a second each and the master printed
+/// "giving up" and shut the whole server down. Drive enough requests through a
+/// tiny quota to force well past MAX_FAST_DEATHS (10) recycles and assert the
+/// master is still alive and serving at the end.
+#[test]
+fn web_max_requests_survives_sustained_recycle_churn() {
+    let dir = make_test_dir("web_maxreq_churn");
+    let bin = compile_web(&dir, "<?php echo 'ok';", "app");
+    let port = free_port();
+    let addr = format!("127.0.0.1:{}", port);
+    let mut child = Command::new(&bin)
+        .args(["--listen", &addr, "--workers", "1", "--max-requests", "2"])
+        .spawn()
+        .expect("spawn");
+    wait_until_ready(&addr);
+    // 30 requests with a quota of 2 forces ~15 recycles (> MAX_FAST_DEATHS).
+    // Recycling is not graceful, so tolerate transient failures at recycle
+    // boundaries — but every logical request must eventually succeed.
+    for i in 0..30 {
+        let mut ok = false;
+        for _ in 0..40 {
+            if try_http_get(&addr, "/").ends_with("ok") {
+                ok = true;
+                break;
+            }
+            std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_millis(50));
+        }
+        assert!(ok, "server gave up during recycle churn at request {}", i + 1);
+    }
+    // The master must still be running (it must NOT have printed "giving up"
+    // and exited after 10 fast recycles).
+    assert!(
+        child.try_wait().expect("try_wait").is_none(),
+        "master exited during sustained --max-requests recycle churn"
+    );
+    let _ = child.kill();
+    let _ = child.wait();
+}
+
 /// Verifies an uncaught exception in the handler returns HTTP 500 instead of
 /// crashing the worker / dropping the connection (B1), and the server keeps
 /// serving other requests afterward.