Techniques for background task scheduling based on shared background bandwidth are described. A method for background task scheduling based on shared background bandwidth may include receiving a request to perform one or more background tasks on a storage server of a storage service in a provider network, determining a priority of each of the one or more background tasks, wherein each background task is associated with a size parameter and a temporal parameter, and wherein the priority of each of the one or more background tasks is based at least on its associated size parameter and temporal parameter, determining a task type associated with each background task, adding each background task to one of a plurality of task queues associated with different task types, wherein each task queue is associated with a bandwidth allocation, and scheduling the one or more background tasks to be performed based on their priority and the bandwidth allocation.