diff --git a/homeassistant/components/mqtt/client.py b/homeassistant/components/mqtt/client.py
index 09edf3f9b34..02998f5d6dd 100644
--- a/homeassistant/components/mqtt/client.py
+++ b/homeassistant/components/mqtt/client.py
@@ -82,8 +82,18 @@ if TYPE_CHECKING:
 
 _LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+MIN_BUFFER_SIZE = 131072  # Minimum buffer size to use if preferred size fails
+PREFERRED_BUFFER_SIZE = 2097152  # Set receive buffer size to 2MB
+
 DISCOVERY_COOLDOWN = 5
-INITIAL_SUBSCRIBE_COOLDOWN = 3.0
+# The initial subscribe cooldown controls how long to wait to group
+# subscriptions together. This is to avoid making too many subscribe
+# requests in a short period of time. If the number is too low, the
+# system will be flooded with subscribe requests. If the number is too
+# high, we risk being flooded with responses to the subscribe requests
+# which can exceed the receive buffer size of the socket. To mitigate
+# this, we increase the receive buffer size of the socket as well.
+INITIAL_SUBSCRIBE_COOLDOWN = 0.5
 SUBSCRIBE_COOLDOWN = 0.1
 UNSUBSCRIBE_COOLDOWN = 0.1
 TIMEOUT_ACK = 10
@@ -427,6 +437,7 @@ class MQTT:
                 hass.bus.async_listen(EVENT_HOMEASSISTANT_STOP, self._async_ha_stop),
             )
         )
+        self._socket_buffersize: int | None = None
 
     @callback
     def _async_ha_started(self, _hass: HomeAssistant) -> None:
@@ -527,6 +538,29 @@ class MQTT:
                 self.hass, self._misc_loop(), name="mqtt misc loop"
             )
 
+    def _increase_socket_buffer_size(self, sock: SocketType) -> None:
+        """Increase the socket buffer size."""
+        new_buffer_size = PREFERRED_BUFFER_SIZE
+        while True:
+            try:
+                # Some operating systems do not allow us to set the preferred
+                # buffer size. In that case we try some other size options.
+                sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_RCVBUF, new_buffer_size)
+            except OSError as err:
+                if new_buffer_size <= MIN_BUFFER_SIZE:
+                    _LOGGER.warning(
+                        "Unable to increase the socket buffer size to %s; "
+                        "The connection may be unstable if the MQTT broker "
+                        "sends data at volume or a large amount of subscriptions "
+                        "need to be processed: %s",
+                        new_buffer_size,
+                        err,
+                    )
+                    return
+                new_buffer_size //= 2
+            else:
+                return
+
     def _on_socket_open(
         self, client: mqtt.Client, userdata: Any, sock: SocketType
     ) -> None:
@@ -543,6 +577,7 @@ class MQTT:
         fileno = sock.fileno()
         _LOGGER.debug("%s: connection opened %s", self.config_entry.title, fileno)
         if fileno > -1:
+            self._increase_socket_buffer_size(sock)
             self.loop.add_reader(sock, partial(self._async_reader_callback, client))
         self._async_start_misc_loop()
 
diff --git a/tests/components/mqtt/test_init.py b/tests/components/mqtt/test_init.py
index ea836f55c12..e74c1762569 100644
--- a/tests/components/mqtt/test_init.py
+++ b/tests/components/mqtt/test_init.py
@@ -4406,6 +4406,34 @@ async def test_server_sock_connect_and_disconnect(
     assert len(calls) == 0
 
 
+@patch("homeassistant.components.mqtt.client.INITIAL_SUBSCRIBE_COOLDOWN", 0.0)
+@patch("homeassistant.components.mqtt.client.DISCOVERY_COOLDOWN", 0.0)
+@patch("homeassistant.components.mqtt.client.SUBSCRIBE_COOLDOWN", 0.0)
+async def test_server_sock_buffer_size(
+    hass: HomeAssistant,
+    mqtt_client_mock: MqttMockPahoClient,
+    mqtt_mock_entry: MqttMockHAClientGenerator,
+    caplog: pytest.LogCaptureFixture,
+) -> None:
+    """Test handling the socket buffer size fails."""
+    mqtt_mock = await mqtt_mock_entry()
+    await hass.async_block_till_done()
+    assert mqtt_mock.connected is True
+
+    mqtt_client_mock.loop_misc.return_value = paho_mqtt.MQTT_ERR_SUCCESS
+
+    client, server = socket.socketpair(
+        family=socket.AF_UNIX, type=socket.SOCK_STREAM, proto=0
+    )
+    client.setblocking(False)
+    server.setblocking(False)
+    with patch.object(client, "setsockopt", side_effect=OSError("foo")):
+        mqtt_client_mock.on_socket_open(mqtt_client_mock, None, client)
+        mqtt_client_mock.on_socket_register_write(mqtt_client_mock, None, client)
+        await hass.async_block_till_done()
+    assert "Unable to increase the socket buffer size" in caplog.text
+
+
 @patch("homeassistant.components.mqtt.client.INITIAL_SUBSCRIBE_COOLDOWN", 0.0)
 @patch("homeassistant.components.mqtt.client.DISCOVERY_COOLDOWN", 0.0)
 @patch("homeassistant.components.mqtt.client.SUBSCRIBE_COOLDOWN", 0.0)