diff --git a/app/controllers/stories_controller.rb b/app/controllers/stories_controller.rb
index f89cb9901..0a669ff38 100644
--- a/app/controllers/stories_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/stories_controller.rb
@@ -131,12 +131,13 @@ class StoriesController < ApplicationController
     end
 
     @num_published_articles = if @tag_model.requires_approval?
-                                Article.published.cached_tagged_by_approval_with(@tag).size
+                                @tag_model.articles.published.where(approved: true).count
                               elsif SiteConfig.feed_strategy == "basic"
-                                Article.published.cached_tagged_with(@tag)
-                                  .where("score >= ?", SiteConfig.tag_feed_minimum_score).size
+                                tagged_count
                               else
-                                cached_tagged_count
+                                Rails.cache.fetch("article-cached-tagged-count-#{@tag}", expires_in: 2.hours) do
+                                  tagged_count
+                                end
                               end
     @number_of_articles = user_signed_in? ? 5 : SIGNED_OUT_RECORD_COUNT
     @stories = Articles::Feeds::LargeForemExperimental
@@ -484,9 +485,7 @@ class StoriesController < ApplicationController
     params[:sort_direction] == "desc" ? :newest : :oldest
   end
 
-  def cached_tagged_count
-    Rails.cache.fetch("article-cached-tagged-count-#{@tag}", expires_in: 2.hours) do
-      Article.published.cached_tagged_with(@tag).where("score >= ?", SiteConfig.tag_feed_minimum_score).size
-    end
+  def tagged_count
+    @tag_model.articles.published.where("score >= ?", SiteConfig.tag_feed_minimum_score).count
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/initializers/rack/attack_spec.rb b/spec/initializers/rack/attack_spec.rb
index 93c8a4f00..d02eb099f 100644
--- a/spec/initializers/rack/attack_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/initializers/rack/attack_spec.rb
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ describe Rack::Attack, type: :request, throttle: true do
 
     # rubocop:disable RSpec/AnyInstance, RSpec/ExampleLength
     it "throttles viewing tags" do
-      allow_any_instance_of(StoriesController).to receive(:cached_tagged_count).and_return(0)
+      allow_any_instance_of(StoriesController).to receive(:tagged_count).and_return(0)
       allow_any_instance_of(StoriesController).to receive(:stories_by_timeframe).and_return(Article.none)
       allow_any_instance_of(Articles::Feeds::LargeForemExperimental).to receive(
         :published_articles_by_tag,