diff --git a/mm/Kconfig b/mm/Kconfig
index a5dae9a7eb51..22e7911403bd 100644
--- a/mm/Kconfig
+++ b/mm/Kconfig
@@ -616,6 +616,15 @@ config MAX_STACK_SIZE_MB
 
 	  A sane initial value is 80 MB.
 
+config BALANCE_ANON_FILE_RECLAIM
+	bool "During reclaim treat anon and file backed pages equally"
+	depends on SWAP
+	help
+	  When performing memory reclaim treat anonymous and file backed pages
+	  equally.
+	  Swapping anonymous pages out to memory can be efficient enough to justify
+	  treating anonymous and file backed pages equally.
+
 config DEFERRED_STRUCT_PAGE_INIT
 	bool "Defer initialisation of struct pages to kthreads"
 	depends on SPARSEMEM
diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
index c6659bb758a4..667e713174a3 100644
--- a/mm/vmscan.c
+++ b/mm/vmscan.c
@@ -2397,7 +2397,8 @@ static void get_scan_count(struct lruvec *lruvec, struct mem_cgroup *memcg,
 	 * lruvec even if it has plenty of old anonymous pages unless the
 	 * system is under heavy pressure.
 	 */
-	if (!inactive_list_is_low(lruvec, true, sc, false) &&
+	if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_BALANCE_ANON_FILE_RECLAIM) &&
+	    !inactive_list_is_low(lruvec, true, sc, false) &&
 	    lruvec_lru_size(lruvec, LRU_INACTIVE_FILE, sc->reclaim_idx) >> sc->priority) {
 		scan_balance = SCAN_FILE;
 		goto out;