diff --git a/cpp/src/neighbors/cagra.cuh b/cpp/src/neighbors/cagra.cuh
index 0e1454d987..27e33d1b17 100644
--- a/cpp/src/neighbors/cagra.cuh
+++ b/cpp/src/neighbors/cagra.cuh
@@ -420,6 +420,28 @@ void search_with_filtering(raft::resources const& res,
     res, params, idx, queries, neighbors, distances, sample_filter);
 }
 
+/**
+ * Fraction of rows removed by per-partition bitsets (one bitset per partition; an empty view means
+ * the partition is unfiltered), clamped to [0, 0.999] so the plan's itopk scaling stays finite.
+ */
+inline float bitset_filtering_rate(
+  raft::resources const& res,
+  const std::vector<int64_t>& partition_rows,
+  const std::vector<cuvs::core::bitset_view<std::uint32_t, int64_t>>& partition_bitsets)
+{
+  int64_t total_rows = 0;
+  int64_t kept_rows  = 0;
+  for (size_t i = 0; i < partition_rows.size(); i++) {
+    total_rows += partition_rows[i];
+    const bool filtered = i < partition_bitsets.size() && partition_bitsets[i].data() != nullptr &&
+                          partition_bitsets[i].size() > 0;
+    kept_rows +=
+      filtered ? static_cast<int64_t>(partition_bitsets[i].count(res)) : partition_rows[i];
+  }
+  const float rate = static_cast<float>(total_rows - kept_rows) / static_cast<float>(total_rows);
+  return std::min(std::max(rate, 0.0f), 0.999f);
+}
+
 template <typename T,
           typename IdxT,
           cuvs::neighbors::ann_dataset_view DatasetViewT,
@@ -449,12 +471,8 @@ void search(raft::resources const& res,
         sample_filter_ref);
     search_params params_copy = params;
     if (params.filtering_rate < 0.0) {
-      const auto num_set_bits = sample_filter.bitset_view_.count(res);
-      auto filtering_rate = (float)(idx.dataset().n_rows() - num_set_bits) / idx.dataset().n_rows();
-      const float min_filtering_rate = 0.0;
-      const float max_filtering_rate = 0.999;
-      params_copy.filtering_rate =
-        std::min(std::max(filtering_rate, min_filtering_rate), max_filtering_rate);
+      params_copy.filtering_rate = bitset_filtering_rate(
+        res, {static_cast<int64_t>(idx.dataset().n_rows())}, {sample_filter.bitset_view_});
     }
     auto sample_filter_copy = sample_filter;
     return search_with_filtering<T, IdxT, decltype(sample_filter_copy), OutputIdxT, DatasetViewT>(
@@ -598,18 +616,27 @@ void search(
     }
   }
 
+  search_params params_copy = params;
+  if (params_copy.filtering_rate < 0.0f) {
+    std::vector<int64_t> partition_rows;
+    for (const auto* idx : indices) {
+      partition_rows.push_back(static_cast<int64_t>(idx->size()));
+    }
+    params_copy.filtering_rate = bitset_filtering_rate(res, partition_rows, partition_bitsets);
+  }
+
   if (rep == nullptr) {
     cagra::detail::search_multi_partition<T,
                                           OutputIdxT,
                                           IdxT,
                                           float,
                                           cuvs::neighbors::filtering::none_sample_filter>(
-      res, params, indices, queries, partition_ids, neighbors, distances, partition_bitsets);
+      res, params_copy, indices, queries, partition_ids, neighbors, distances, partition_bitsets);
   } else {
     using bitset_filter_t = cuvs::neighbors::filtering::bitset_filter<std::uint32_t, int64_t>;
     cagra::detail::search_multi_partition<T, OutputIdxT, IdxT, float, bitset_filter_t>(
       res,
-      params,
+      params_copy,
       indices,
       queries,
       partition_ids,
diff --git a/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/search_plan.cuh b/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/search_plan.cuh
index a6d1bd1204..d7f9b26fda 100644
--- a/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/search_plan.cuh
+++ b/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/search_plan.cuh
@@ -199,12 +199,34 @@ struct search_plan_impl : public search_plan_impl_base {
 
   void adjust_search_params()
   {
+    if (algo == search_algo::MULTI_CTA && (0.0 < filtering_rate && filtering_rate < 1.0)) {
+      size_t adjusted_itopk_size =
+        (size_t)((float)topk / (1.0 - filtering_rate) +
+                 (float)(itopk_size - topk) / std::sqrt(1.0 - filtering_rate));
+      if (adjusted_itopk_size % 32) { adjusted_itopk_size += 32 - (adjusted_itopk_size % 32); }
+      if (itopk_size < adjusted_itopk_size) {
+        RAFT_LOG_DEBUG(
+          "# internal_topk is increased from %lu to %lu, considering fintering rate %f.",
+          itopk_size,
+          adjusted_itopk_size,
+          filtering_rate);
+        itopk_size = adjusted_itopk_size;
+      }
+    }
     uint32_t _max_iterations = max_iterations;
     if (max_iterations == 0) {
       if (algo == search_algo::MULTI_CTA) {
-        constexpr uint32_t mc_itopk_size   = 32;
-        constexpr uint32_t mc_search_width = 1;
-        _max_iterations                    = mc_itopk_size / mc_search_width;
+        constexpr size_t mc_itopk_size  = 32;
+        const size_t minimum_depth      = 16;
+        const auto effective_itopk_size = raft::ceildiv(itopk_size, mc_itopk_size) * mc_itopk_size;
+        // In multi-CTA algo, search_width and itopk are both knobs on num_ctas
+        const auto num_ctas = max(search_width, raft::ceildiv(effective_itopk_size, mc_itopk_size));
+
+        // Shrink max_iterations when num_ctas is large. In multi-CTA algo, larger num_ctas implies
+        // both more width and depth
+        _max_iterations = minimum_depth + raft::ceildiv(mc_itopk_size - minimum_depth, num_ctas);
+        // Compensate for the difficult case of large topk
+        _max_iterations += raft::ceildiv(static_cast<size_t>(topk), mc_itopk_size) - 1;
       } else {
         _max_iterations = itopk_size / search_width;
       }
@@ -220,20 +242,6 @@ struct search_plan_impl : public search_plan_impl_base {
         "# max_iterations is increased from %lu to %u.", max_iterations, _max_iterations);
       max_iterations = _max_iterations;
     }
-    if (algo == search_algo::MULTI_CTA && (0.0 < filtering_rate && filtering_rate < 1.0)) {
-      size_t adjusted_itopk_size =
-        (size_t)((float)topk / (1.0 - filtering_rate) +
-                 (float)(itopk_size - topk) / std::sqrt(1.0 - filtering_rate));
-      if (adjusted_itopk_size % 32) { adjusted_itopk_size += 32 - (adjusted_itopk_size % 32); }
-      if (itopk_size < adjusted_itopk_size) {
-        RAFT_LOG_DEBUG(
-          "# internal_topk is increased from %lu to %lu, considering fintering rate %f.",
-          itopk_size,
-          adjusted_itopk_size,
-          filtering_rate);
-        itopk_size = adjusted_itopk_size;
-      }
-    }
     if (itopk_size % 32) {
       uint32_t itopk32 = itopk_size;
       itopk32 += 32 - (itopk_size % 32);