diff --git a/lightning/metric/metric.go b/lightning/metric/metric.go
index 3fef6fa7e..b2a8c75cf 100644
--- a/lightning/metric/metric.go
+++ b/lightning/metric/metric.go
@@ -118,6 +118,14 @@ var (
 			Buckets:   prometheus.ExponentialBuckets(0.001, 3.1622776601683795, 10),
 		},
 	)
+	ApplyWorkerSecondsHistogram = prometheus.NewHistogramVec(
+		prometheus.HistogramOpts{
+			Namespace: "lightning",
+			Name:      "apply_worker_seconds",
+			Help:      "time needed to apply a worker",
+			Buckets:   prometheus.ExponentialBuckets(0.001, 3.1622776601683795, 10),
+		}, []string{"name"},
+	)
 	BlockEncodeSecondsHistogram = prometheus.NewHistogram(
 		prometheus.HistogramOpts{
 			Namespace: "lightning",
@@ -167,6 +175,7 @@ func init() {
 	prometheus.MustRegister(ChecksumSecondsHistogram)
 	prometheus.MustRegister(ChunkParserReadRowSecondsHistogram)
 	prometheus.MustRegister(ChunkParserReadBlockSecondsHistogram)
+	prometheus.MustRegister(ApplyWorkerSecondsHistogram)
 }
 
 func RecordTableCount(status string, err error) {
diff --git a/lightning/worker/worker.go b/lightning/worker/worker.go
index dbf034fee..bd6a9d614 100644
--- a/lightning/worker/worker.go
+++ b/lightning/worker/worker.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package worker
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/pingcap/tidb-lightning/lightning/metric"
 )
@@ -31,8 +32,10 @@ func NewRestoreWorkerPool(ctx context.Context, limit int, name string) *RestoreW
 }
 
 func (pool *RestoreWorkerPool) Apply() *RestoreWorker {
+	start := time.Now()
 	worker := <-pool.workers
 	metric.IdleWorkersGauge.WithLabelValues(pool.name).Set(float64(len(pool.workers)))
+	metric.ApplyWorkerSecondsHistogram.WithLabelValues(pool.name).Observe(time.Since(start).Seconds())
 	return worker
 }
 func (pool *RestoreWorkerPool) Recycle(worker *RestoreWorker) {