max heap : 512 MB target live set : 281 MB (55% of heap) threads : 12, duration: 20 s filling live set ... live set filled: 4,505 chunks x 64 KB now allocating hard for 20 s -- expect stalls allocation phase done ======================================================================== JFR summary (C:\Users\Ankur\allocation-stalls.jfr) ======================================================================== young collections : 1,778 old collections : 217 page allocations : 39,685 ALLOCATION STALLS : 31,967 total time threads spent stalled : 138,521 ms mean stall : 4.33 ms longest stall : 51.41 ms stalls by ZGC page type Small count=31,967 total=138,521 ms mean=4.33 ms ten longest stalls duration page size thread 51.41 ms Small 2097152 allocator-10 50.18 ms Small 2097152 allocator-0 48.12 ms Small 2097152 allocator-5 47.93 ms Small 2097152 allocator-1 46.90 ms Small 2097152 allocator-1 46.14 ms Small 2097152 allocator-11 46.14 ms Small 2097152 allocator-11 46.08 ms Small 2097152 allocator-6 46.02 ms Small 2097152 allocator-4 45.68 ms Small 2097152 allocator-9 Compare against your pause-time chart: none of the above is a pause. Inspect the raw events, including the stack that was stalled, with: jfr print --events ZAllocationStall allocation-stalls.jfr