diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-algebra/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/optimizer/rules/SetAsterixMemoryRequirementsRule.java b/asterixdb/asterix-algebra/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/optimizer/rules/SetAsterixMemoryRequirementsRule.java
index abe4b71..8de1fb5 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-algebra/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/optimizer/rules/SetAsterixMemoryRequirementsRule.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-algebra/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/optimizer/rules/SetAsterixMemoryRequirementsRule.java
@@ -52,6 +52,9 @@
     }
 
     private boolean forceMinMemoryBudget(AsterixOptimizationContext context) {
+        if (!context.getPhysicalOptimizationConfig().getMinMemoryAllocation()) {
+            return false;
+        }
         Int2ObjectMap<Set<DataSource>> dataSourceMap = context.getDataSourceMap();
         if (dataSourceMap.isEmpty()) {
             return false;
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/api/common/APIFramework.java b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/api/common/APIFramework.java
index baf083d..9088db6 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/api/common/APIFramework.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/api/common/APIFramework.java
@@ -135,7 +135,8 @@
             CompilerProperties.COMPILER_SORT_PARALLEL_KEY, CompilerProperties.COMPILER_SORT_SAMPLES_KEY,
             CompilerProperties.COMPILER_INDEXONLY_KEY, CompilerProperties.COMPILER_INTERNAL_SANITYCHECK_KEY,
             CompilerProperties.COMPILER_EXTERNAL_FIELD_PUSHDOWN_KEY, CompilerProperties.COMPILER_SUBPLAN_MERGE_KEY,
-            CompilerProperties.COMPILER_SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN_KEY, FunctionUtil.IMPORT_PRIVATE_FUNCTIONS,
+            CompilerProperties.COMPILER_SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN_KEY,
+            CompilerProperties.COMPILER_MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION_KEY, FunctionUtil.IMPORT_PRIVATE_FUNCTIONS,
             FuzzyUtils.SIM_FUNCTION_PROP_NAME, FuzzyUtils.SIM_THRESHOLD_PROP_NAME,
             StartFeedStatement.WAIT_FOR_COMPLETION, FeedActivityDetails.FEED_POLICY_NAME,
             FeedActivityDetails.COLLECT_LOCATIONS, SqlppQueryRewriter.INLINE_WITH_OPTION,
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/TestExecutor.java b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/TestExecutor.java
index e202ddf..44038cc 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/TestExecutor.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/TestExecutor.java
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@
 import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.nio.CharBuffer;
 import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.text.MessageFormat;
 import java.util.ArrayDeque;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
@@ -161,6 +163,7 @@
     private static final Pattern HANDLE_VARIABLE_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("handlevariable=(\\w+)");
     private static final Pattern RESULT_VARIABLE_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("resultvariable=(\\w+)");
     private static final Pattern COMPARE_UNORDERED_ARRAY_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("compareunorderedarray=(\\w+)");
+    private static final Pattern BODY_REF_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("bodyref=(.*)", Pattern.MULTILINE);
     private static final Pattern MACRO_PARAM_PATTERN =
             Pattern.compile("macro (?<name>[\\w-$]+)=(?<value>.*)", Pattern.MULTILINE);
 
@@ -1329,12 +1332,16 @@
         final String trimmedPathAndQuery = stripAllComments(statement).trim();
         final String variablesReplaced = replaceVarRef(trimmedPathAndQuery, variableCtx);
         final List<Parameter> params = extractParameters(statement);
-        final Optional<String> body = extractBody(statement);
+        Optional<String> body = extractBody(statement);
         final Predicate<Integer> statusCodePredicate = extractStatusCodePredicate(statement);
         final boolean extracResult = isExtracResult(statement);
         final boolean extractStatus = isExtractStatus(statement);
         final String mimeReqType = extractHttpRequestType(statement);
+        final String saveResponseVar = getResultVariable(statement);
         ContentType contentType = mimeReqType != null ? ContentType.create(mimeReqType, UTF_8) : TEXT_PLAIN_UTF8;
+        if (!body.isPresent()) {
+            body = getBodyFromReference(statement, variableCtx);
+        }
         InputStream resultStream;
         if ("http".equals(extension)) {
             resultStream = executeHttp(reqType, variablesReplaced, fmt, params, statusCodePredicate, body, contentType);
@@ -1356,6 +1363,8 @@
             } else {
                 throw new Exception("no handle for test " + testFile.toString());
             }
+        } else if (saveResponseVar != null) {
+            variableCtx.put(saveResponseVar, IOUtils.toString(resultStream, UTF_8));
         } else {
             if (expectedResultFile == null) {
                 if (testFile.getName().startsWith(DIAGNOSE)) {
@@ -1689,6 +1698,27 @@
         return resultVariableMatcher.find() ? resultVariableMatcher.group(1) : null;
     }
 
+    protected static Optional<String> getBodyFromReference(String statement, Map<String, Object> varMap)
+            throws IOException {
+        Optional<String> bodyRef = findPattern(statement, BODY_REF_PATTERN);
+        if (!bodyRef.isPresent()) {
+            return Optional.empty();
+        }
+        String bodyReference = bodyRef.get();
+        String body = (String) varMap.get(bodyReference);
+        if (body != null) {
+            return Optional.of(body);
+        }
+        try (Stream<String> stream = Files.lines(Paths.get(bodyReference), UTF_8)) {
+            return Optional.of(stream.collect(Collectors.joining()));
+        }
+    }
+
+    protected static Optional<String> findPattern(String statement, Pattern pattern) {
+        final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(statement);
+        return matcher.find() ? Optional.of(matcher.group(1)) : Optional.empty();
+    }
+
     protected static boolean getCompareUnorderedArray(String statement) {
         final Matcher matcher = COMPARE_UNORDERED_ARRAY_PATTERN.matcher(statement);
         return matcher.find() && Boolean.parseBoolean(matcher.group(1));
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/misc/metadata_only_01/metadata_only_01.2.plans.sqlpp b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/misc/metadata_only_01/metadata_only_01.2.plans.sqlpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b6fdbf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/misc/metadata_only_01/metadata_only_01.2.plans.sqlpp
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+/* Test that a metadata-only query gets a normal memory budget instead of the compiler-allocated memory */
+
+-- param job:string=true
+
+SET `compiler.parallelism` "1";
+SET `compiler.min.memory.allocation` "false";
+SET `compiler.sortmemory` "320KB";
+SET `compiler.groupmemory` "160KB";
+SET `compiler.joinmemory` "256KB";
+SET `compiler.textsearchmemory` "160KB";
+
+from Metadata.`Dataset` ds
+join Metadata.`Index` idx
+on ds.DataverseName = idx.DataverseName and ds.DatasetName = idx.DatasetName
+where contains(ds.DataverseName, "Metadata")
+  and ds.DatasetName in ["Dataverse", "Dataset", "Index"]
+  and idx.IsPrimary
+group by ds.DataverseName
+select value count(*);
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1/cluster_state_1.1.regexadm b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1/cluster_state_1.1.regexadm
index 378fc83..b6a49a6 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1/cluster_state_1.1.regexadm
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1/cluster_state_1.1.regexadm
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
     "compiler\.indexonly" : true,
     "compiler\.internal\.sanitycheck" : true,
     "compiler\.joinmemory" : 262144,
+    "compiler\.min\.memory\.allocation" : true,
     "compiler\.parallelism" : 0,
     "compiler\.sort\.parallel" : false,
     "compiler\.sort\.samples" : 100,
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1_full/cluster_state_1_full.1.regexadm b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1_full/cluster_state_1_full.1.regexadm
index 5ff1b7a..dedb40f 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1_full/cluster_state_1_full.1.regexadm
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1_full/cluster_state_1_full.1.regexadm
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
     "compiler\.indexonly" : true,
     "compiler\.internal\.sanitycheck" : false,
     "compiler\.joinmemory" : 262144,
+    "compiler\.min\.memory\.allocation" : true,
     "compiler\.parallelism" : -1,
     "compiler\.sort\.parallel" : true,
     "compiler\.sort\.samples" : 100,
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1_less/cluster_state_1_less.1.regexadm b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1_less/cluster_state_1_less.1.regexadm
index 2e76d04..985d3bd 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1_less/cluster_state_1_less.1.regexadm
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/api/cluster_state_1_less/cluster_state_1_less.1.regexadm
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
     "compiler\.indexonly" : true,
     "compiler\.internal\.sanitycheck" : false,
     "compiler\.joinmemory" : 262144,
+    "compiler\.min\.memory\.allocation" : true,
     "compiler\.parallelism" : 3,
     "compiler\.sort\.parallel" : true,
     "compiler\.sort\.samples" : 100,
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/misc/metadata_only_01/metadata_only_01.2.regex b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/misc/metadata_only_01/metadata_only_01.2.regex
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6af6770
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/results/misc/metadata_only_01/metadata_only_01.2.regex
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/memory\D+1146880/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/CompilerProperties.java b/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/CompilerProperties.java
index 9340110..39142e5 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/CompilerProperties.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/CompilerProperties.java
@@ -91,7 +91,11 @@
         COMPILER_SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN(
                 BOOLEAN,
                 AlgebricksConfig.SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN_DEFAULT,
-                "When merging subplans into groupby/suplan allow nesting of subplans");
+                "When merging subplans into groupby/suplan allow nesting of subplans"),
+        COMPILER_MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION(
+                BOOLEAN,
+                AlgebricksConfig.MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION_DEFAULT,
+                "Enable/disable allocating minimum budget for certain queries");
 
         private final IOptionType type;
         private final Object defaultValue;
@@ -150,6 +154,8 @@
 
     public static final String COMPILER_SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN_KEY = Option.COMPILER_SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN.ini();
 
+    public static final String COMPILER_MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION_KEY = Option.COMPILER_MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION.ini();
+
     public static final int COMPILER_PARALLELISM_AS_STORAGE = 0;
 
     public CompilerProperties(PropertiesAccessor accessor) {
@@ -211,4 +217,8 @@
     public boolean getSubplanNestedPushdown() {
         return accessor.getBoolean(Option.COMPILER_SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN);
     }
+
+    public boolean getMinMemoryAllocation() {
+        return accessor.getBoolean(Option.COMPILER_MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/OptimizationConfUtil.java b/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/OptimizationConfUtil.java
index 5079b25..8832054 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/OptimizationConfUtil.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/OptimizationConfUtil.java
@@ -70,6 +70,8 @@
                 compilerProperties.getSubplanMerge());
         boolean subplanNestedPushdown = getBoolean(querySpecificConfig,
                 CompilerProperties.COMPILER_SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN_KEY, compilerProperties.getSubplanNestedPushdown());
+        boolean minMemoryAllocation = getBoolean(querySpecificConfig,
+                CompilerProperties.COMPILER_MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION_KEY, compilerProperties.getMinMemoryAllocation());
 
         PhysicalOptimizationConfig physOptConf = new PhysicalOptimizationConfig();
         physOptConf.setFrameSize(frameSize);
@@ -85,6 +87,7 @@
         physOptConf.setExternalFieldPushdown(externalFieldPushdown);
         physOptConf.setSubplanMerge(subplanMerge);
         physOptConf.setSubplanNestedPushdown(subplanNestedPushdown);
+        physOptConf.setMinMemoryAllocation(minMemoryAllocation);
         return physOptConf;
     }
 
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/algebricks/algebricks-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/algebricks/core/config/AlgebricksConfig.java b/hyracks-fullstack/algebricks/algebricks-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/algebricks/core/config/AlgebricksConfig.java
index 2ed40fd..c99117b 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/algebricks/algebricks-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/algebricks/core/config/AlgebricksConfig.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/algebricks/algebricks-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/algebricks/core/config/AlgebricksConfig.java
@@ -32,4 +32,5 @@
     public static final boolean EXTERNAL_FIELD_PUSHDOWN_DEFAULT = false;
     public static final boolean SUBPLAN_MERGE_DEFAULT = true;
     public static final boolean SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN_DEFAULT = true;
+    public static final boolean MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION_DEFAULT = true;
 }
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/algebricks/algebricks-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/algebricks/core/rewriter/base/PhysicalOptimizationConfig.java b/hyracks-fullstack/algebricks/algebricks-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/algebricks/core/rewriter/base/PhysicalOptimizationConfig.java
index bfa4298..92f579c 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/algebricks/algebricks-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/algebricks/core/rewriter/base/PhysicalOptimizationConfig.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/algebricks/algebricks-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/algebricks/core/rewriter/base/PhysicalOptimizationConfig.java
@@ -44,8 +44,9 @@
     private static final String EXTERNAL_FIELD_PUSHDOWN = "EXTERNAL_FIELD_PUSHDOWN";
     private static final String SUBPLAN_MERGE = "SUBPLAN_MERGE";
     private static final String SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN = "SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN";
+    private static final String MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION = "MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION";
 
-    private Properties properties = new Properties();
+    private final Properties properties = new Properties();
 
     public PhysicalOptimizationConfig() {
         int frameSize = 32768;
@@ -217,6 +218,14 @@
         setBoolean(SUBPLAN_NESTEDPUSHDOWN, value);
     }
 
+    public boolean getMinMemoryAllocation() {
+        return getBoolean(MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION, AlgebricksConfig.MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION_DEFAULT);
+    }
+
+    public void setMinMemoryAllocation(boolean value) {
+        setBoolean(MIN_MEMORY_ALLOCATION, value);
+    }
+
     private void setInt(String property, int value) {
         properties.setProperty(property, Integer.toString(value));
     }