diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 417f0a95e8552..db3f0ea540a9b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -322,16 +322,25 @@ jobs:
 
   # The web suite is the largest outside the server. In the shared Test job it
   # started last and ran alone for about 40s after everything else finished.
-  # release.yml mirrors this test, test_web, and test_server split.
+  # It is also the longest job of web pull requests, so vitest's `--shard` splits
+  # its test files (unit and browser alike, by a hash of the path) over two
+  # runners. The shards repeat only checkout, install and the Chromium restore,
+  # about 20s. The `Check` job needs `test_web` as a whole, so this adds no
+  # required status. release.yml mirrors the test, test_web, and test_server
+  # split but not the web shards: it is not a pull request wait.
   test_web:
     permissions:
       contents: read
       id-token: write
-    name: Test Web
+    name: Test Web ${{ matrix.shard }}
     needs: changes
     if: ${{ !cancelled() && needs.changes.outputs.test_web != 'false' }}
     runs-on: blacksmith-8vcpu-ubuntu-2404
     timeout-minutes: 10
+    strategy:
+      fail-fast: false
+      matrix:
+        shard: [1, 2]
     steps:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v6
@@ -373,7 +382,7 @@ jobs:
           fi
 
       - name: Test
-        run: vp run --filter @t3tools/web test
+        run: vp run --filter @t3tools/web test --shard ${{ matrix.shard }}/${{ strategy.job-total }}
 
   # apps/server sets `fileParallelism: false`, so its test files run strictly
   # one at a time. Sharding spreads them over separate runners instead of