diff --git a/packages/react-native/React/Fabric/Mounting/ComponentViews/Image/RCTImageComponentView.mm b/packages/react-native/React/Fabric/Mounting/ComponentViews/Image/RCTImageComponentView.mm
index 9d7b67f07d4..8b5b3d1b22a 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/React/Fabric/Mounting/ComponentViews/Image/RCTImageComponentView.mm
+++ b/packages/react-native/React/Fabric/Mounting/ComponentViews/Image/RCTImageComponentView.mm
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 #import <react/renderer/components/image/ImageComponentDescriptor.h>
 #import <react/renderer/components/image/ImageEventEmitter.h>
 #import <react/renderer/components/image/ImageProps.h>
+#import <react/renderer/core/CoreFeatures.h>
 #import <react/renderer/imagemanager/ImageRequest.h>
 #import <react/renderer/imagemanager/RCTImagePrimitivesConversions.h>
 
@@ -97,8 +98,18 @@ using namespace facebook::react;
 - (void)_setStateAndResubscribeImageResponseObserver:(ImageShadowNode::ConcreteState::Shared const &)state
 {
   if (_state) {
-    auto &observerCoordinator = _state->getData().getImageRequest().getObserverCoordinator();
+    auto const &imageRequest = _state->getData().getImageRequest();
+    auto &observerCoordinator = imageRequest.getObserverCoordinator();
     observerCoordinator.removeObserver(_imageResponseObserverProxy);
+    if (CoreFeatures::cancelImageDownloadsOnRecycle) {
+      // Cancelling image request because we are no longer observing it.
+      // This is not 100% correct place to do this because we may want to
+      // re-create RCTImageComponentView with the same image and if it
+      // was cancelled before downloaded, download is not resumed.
+      // This will only become issue if we decouple life cycle of a
+      // ShadowNode from ComponentView, which is not something we do now.
+      imageRequest.cancel();
+    }
   }
 
   _state = state;
diff --git a/packages/react-native/React/Fabric/RCTSurfacePresenter.mm b/packages/react-native/React/Fabric/RCTSurfacePresenter.mm
index d52cbdfe763..d86ce029407 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/React/Fabric/RCTSurfacePresenter.mm
+++ b/packages/react-native/React/Fabric/RCTSurfacePresenter.mm
@@ -285,6 +285,10 @@ static BackgroundExecutor RCTGetBackgroundExecutor()
     CoreFeatures::cacheNSTextStorage = true;
   }
 
+  if (reactNativeConfig && reactNativeConfig->getBool("react_fabric:cancel_image_downloads_on_recycle")) {
+    CoreFeatures::cancelImageDownloadsOnRecycle = true;
+  }
+
   auto componentRegistryFactory =
       [factory = wrapManagedObject(_mountingManager.componentViewRegistry.componentViewFactory)](
           EventDispatcher::Weak const &eventDispatcher, ContextContainer::Shared const &contextContainer) {
diff --git a/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/core/CoreFeatures.cpp b/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/core/CoreFeatures.cpp
index bda8adb91a6..ae056768664 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/core/CoreFeatures.cpp
+++ b/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/core/CoreFeatures.cpp
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ bool CoreFeatures::blockPaintForUseLayoutEffect = false;
 bool CoreFeatures::useNativeState = false;
 bool CoreFeatures::cacheNSTextStorage = false;
 bool CoreFeatures::cacheLastTextMeasurement = false;
+bool CoreFeatures::cancelImageDownloadsOnRecycle = false;
 
 } // namespace react
 } // namespace facebook
diff --git a/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/core/CoreFeatures.h b/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/core/CoreFeatures.h
index 45defe2afd1..65b10a96abb 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/core/CoreFeatures.h
+++ b/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/core/CoreFeatures.h
@@ -44,6 +44,10 @@ class CoreFeatures {
   // This flag enables a caching mechanism to avoid subsequents measurements
   // of the same Text with the same constrainst.
   static bool cacheLastTextMeasurement;
+
+  // Fabric was not cancelling image downloads when <ImageView /> was removed
+  // from view hierarchy. This feature flag enables this feature.
+  static bool cancelImageDownloadsOnRecycle;
 };
 
 } // namespace react
diff --git a/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/imagemanager/ImageRequest.h b/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/imagemanager/ImageRequest.h
index d3dbee8bdeb..ff6d4d5bef2 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/imagemanager/ImageRequest.h
+++ b/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/imagemanager/ImageRequest.h
@@ -47,6 +47,12 @@ class ImageRequest final {
    */
   void setCancelationFunction(std::function<void(void)> cancelationFunction);
 
+  /*
+   * Calls cancel function if one is defined. Should be when downloading
+   * image isn't needed anymore. E.g. <ImageView /> was removed.
+   */
+  void cancel() const;
+
   /*
    * Returns the Image Source associated with the request.
    */
diff --git a/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/imagemanager/platform/ios/react/renderer/imagemanager/ImageRequest.cpp b/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/imagemanager/platform/ios/react/renderer/imagemanager/ImageRequest.cpp
index 01e65d6353c..ec42014e39e 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/imagemanager/platform/ios/react/renderer/imagemanager/ImageRequest.cpp
+++ b/packages/react-native/ReactCommon/react/renderer/imagemanager/platform/ios/react/renderer/imagemanager/ImageRequest.cpp
@@ -22,6 +22,12 @@ void ImageRequest::setCancelationFunction(
   cancelRequest_ = cancelationFunction;
 }
 
+void ImageRequest::cancel() const {
+  if (cancelRequest_) {
+    cancelRequest_();
+  }
+}
+
 const ImageSource &ImageRequest::getImageSource() const {
   return imageSource_;
 }