diff --git a/monitor.c b/monitor.c
index 77f4c41cfa..6ccd2fc089 100644
--- a/monitor.c
+++ b/monitor.c
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 #include "net/slirp.h"
 #include "chardev/char-fe.h"
 #include "chardev/char-io.h"
+#include "chardev/char-mux.h"
 #include "ui/qemu-spice.h"
 #include "sysemu/numa.h"
 #include "monitor/monitor.h"
@@ -4536,8 +4537,10 @@ static void monitor_qmp_setup_handlers_bh(void *opaque)
 void monitor_init(Chardev *chr, int flags)
 {
     Monitor *mon = g_malloc(sizeof(*mon));
+    /* Enable IOThread for QMPs that are not using MUX chardev backends. */
+    bool use_io_thr = (!CHARDEV_IS_MUX(chr)) && (flags & MONITOR_USE_CONTROL);
 
-    monitor_data_init(mon, false, false);
+    monitor_data_init(mon, false, use_io_thr);
 
     qemu_chr_fe_init(&mon->chr, chr, &error_abort);
     mon->flags = flags;