diff --git a/include/linux/damon.h b/include/linux/damon.h
index d3a231275c23..f2370a3a4a9a 100644
--- a/include/linux/damon.h
+++ b/include/linux/damon.h
@@ -801,6 +801,7 @@ struct damon_attrs {
  * @ops:	Set of monitoring operations for given use cases.
  * @addr_unit:	Scale factor for core to ops address conversion.
  * @min_region_sz:	Minimum region size.
+ * @pause:	Pause kdamond main loop.
  * @adaptive_targets:	Head of monitoring targets (&damon_target) list.
  * @schemes:		Head of schemes (&damos) list.
  */
@@ -854,6 +855,7 @@ struct damon_ctx {
 	struct damon_operations ops;
 	unsigned long addr_unit;
 	unsigned long min_region_sz;
+	bool pause;
 
 	struct list_head adaptive_targets;
 	struct list_head schemes;
diff --git a/mm/damon/core.c b/mm/damon/core.c
index 7aeaf319a18a..05e4bef367db 100644
--- a/mm/damon/core.c
+++ b/mm/damon/core.c
@@ -1370,6 +1370,7 @@ int damon_commit_ctx(struct damon_ctx *dst, struct damon_ctx *src)
 		if (err)
 			return err;
 	}
+	dst->pause = src->pause;
 	dst->ops = src->ops;
 	dst->addr_unit = src->addr_unit;
 	dst->min_region_sz = src->min_region_sz;
@@ -3237,6 +3238,14 @@ static int kdamond_fn(void *data)
 		kdamond_call(ctx, false);
 		if (ctx->maybe_corrupted)
 			break;
+		while (ctx->pause) {
+			damos_walk_cancel(ctx);
+			kdamond_usleep(ctx->attrs.sample_interval);
+			/* allow caller unset pause via damon_call() */
+			kdamond_call(ctx, false);
+			if (kdamond_need_stop(ctx) || ctx->maybe_corrupted)
+				goto done;
+		}
 		if (!list_empty(&ctx->schemes))
 			kdamond_apply_schemes(ctx);
 		else