diff --git a/include/tcg/startup.h b/include/tcg/startup.h
index f71305765c..95f574af2b 100644
--- a/include/tcg/startup.h
+++ b/include/tcg/startup.h
@@ -29,12 +29,12 @@
  * tcg_init: Initialize the TCG runtime
  * @tb_size: translation buffer size
  * @splitwx: use separate rw and rx mappings
- * @max_cpus: number of vcpus in system mode
+ * @max_threads: number of vcpu threads in system mode
  *
  * Allocate and initialize TCG resources, especially the JIT buffer.
- * In user-only mode, @max_cpus is unused.
+ * In user-only mode, @max_threads is unused.
  */
-void tcg_init(size_t tb_size, int splitwx, unsigned max_cpus);
+void tcg_init(size_t tb_size, int splitwx, unsigned max_threads);
 
 /**
  * tcg_register_thread: Register this thread with the TCG runtime
diff --git a/tcg/tcg-internal.h b/tcg/tcg-internal.h
index a648ee7a0e..ff85fb23fa 100644
--- a/tcg/tcg-internal.h
+++ b/tcg/tcg-internal.h
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ extern TCGContext **tcg_ctxs;
 extern unsigned int tcg_cur_ctxs;
 extern unsigned int tcg_max_ctxs;
 
-void tcg_region_init(size_t tb_size, int splitwx, unsigned max_cpus);
+void tcg_region_init(size_t tb_size, int splitwx, unsigned max_threads);
 bool tcg_region_alloc(TCGContext *s);
 void tcg_region_initial_alloc(TCGContext *s);
 void tcg_region_prologue_set(TCGContext *s);
diff --git a/accel/tcg/tcg-all.c b/accel/tcg/tcg-all.c
index a5a1fd6a11..3efc7350eb 100644
--- a/accel/tcg/tcg-all.c
+++ b/accel/tcg/tcg-all.c
@@ -103,18 +103,20 @@ bool one_insn_per_tb;
 static int tcg_init_machine(MachineState *ms)
 {
     TCGState *s = TCG_STATE(current_accel());
-#ifdef CONFIG_USER_ONLY
-    unsigned max_cpus = 1;
-#else
-    unsigned max_cpus = ms->smp.max_cpus;
-#endif
+    unsigned max_threads = 1;
 
     tcg_allowed = true;
     mttcg_enabled = s->mttcg_enabled;
 
     page_init();
     tb_htable_init();
-    tcg_init(s->tb_size * MiB, s->splitwx_enabled, max_cpus);
+
+#ifndef CONFIG_USER_ONLY
+    if (mttcg_enabled) {
+        max_threads = ms->smp.max_cpus;
+    }
+#endif
+    tcg_init(s->tb_size * MiB, s->splitwx_enabled, max_threads);
 
 #if defined(CONFIG_SOFTMMU)
     /*
diff --git a/tcg/region.c b/tcg/region.c
index 478ec051c4..7ea0b37a84 100644
--- a/tcg/region.c
+++ b/tcg/region.c
@@ -422,7 +422,7 @@ void tcg_region_reset_all(void)
     tcg_region_tree_reset_all();
 }
 
-static size_t tcg_n_regions(size_t tb_size, unsigned max_cpus)
+static size_t tcg_n_regions(size_t tb_size, unsigned max_threads)
 {
 #ifdef CONFIG_USER_ONLY
     return 1;
@@ -431,24 +431,25 @@ static size_t tcg_n_regions(size_t tb_size, unsigned max_cpus)
 
     /*
      * It is likely that some vCPUs will translate more code than others,
-     * so we first try to set more regions than max_cpus, with those regions
+     * so we first try to set more regions than threads, with those regions
      * being of reasonable size. If that's not possible we make do by evenly
      * dividing the code_gen_buffer among the vCPUs.
+     *
+     * Use a single region if all we have is one vCPU thread.
      */
-    /* Use a single region if all we have is one vCPU thread */
-    if (max_cpus == 1 || !qemu_tcg_mttcg_enabled()) {
+    if (max_threads == 1) {
         return 1;
     }
 
     /*
-     * Try to have more regions than max_cpus, with each region being >= 2 MB.
+     * Try to have more regions than threads, with each region being >= 2 MB.
      * If we can't, then just allocate one region per vCPU thread.
      */
     n_regions = tb_size / (2 * MiB);
-    if (n_regions <= max_cpus) {
-        return max_cpus;
+    if (n_regions <= max_threads) {
+        return max_threads;
     }
-    return MIN(n_regions, max_cpus * 8);
+    return MIN(n_regions, max_threads * 8);
 #endif
 }
 
@@ -731,11 +732,7 @@ static int alloc_code_gen_buffer(size_t size, int splitwx, Error **errp)
  * and then assigning regions to TCG threads so that the threads can translate
  * code in parallel without synchronization.
  *
- * In system-mode the number of TCG threads is bounded by max_cpus, so we use at
- * least max_cpus regions in MTTCG. In !MTTCG we use a single region.
- * Note that the TCG options from the command-line (i.e. -accel accel=tcg,[...])
- * must have been parsed before calling this function, since it calls
- * qemu_tcg_mttcg_enabled().
+ * In system-mode the number of TCG threads is bounded by max_threads,
  *
  * In user-mode we use a single region.  Having multiple regions in user-mode
  * is not supported, because the number of vCPU threads (recall that each thread
@@ -749,7 +746,7 @@ static int alloc_code_gen_buffer(size_t size, int splitwx, Error **errp)
  * in practice. Multi-threaded guests share most if not all of their translated
  * code, which makes parallel code generation less appealing than in system-mode
  */
-void tcg_region_init(size_t tb_size, int splitwx, unsigned max_cpus)
+void tcg_region_init(size_t tb_size, int splitwx, unsigned max_threads)
 {
     const size_t page_size = qemu_real_host_page_size();
     size_t region_size;
@@ -787,7 +784,7 @@ void tcg_region_init(size_t tb_size, int splitwx, unsigned max_cpus)
      * As a result of this we might end up with a few extra pages at the end of
      * the buffer; we will assign those to the last region.
      */
-    region.n = tcg_n_regions(tb_size, max_cpus);
+    region.n = tcg_n_regions(tb_size, max_threads);
     region_size = tb_size / region.n;
     region_size = QEMU_ALIGN_DOWN(region_size, page_size);
 
diff --git a/tcg/tcg.c b/tcg/tcg.c
index dfd48b8264..ec7f6743d7 100644
--- a/tcg/tcg.c
+++ b/tcg/tcg.c
@@ -1499,7 +1499,7 @@ static void process_constraint_sets(void);
 static TCGTemp *tcg_global_reg_new_internal(TCGContext *s, TCGType type,
                                             TCGReg reg, const char *name);
 
-static void tcg_context_init(unsigned max_cpus)
+static void tcg_context_init(unsigned max_threads)
 {
     TCGContext *s = &tcg_init_ctx;
     int n, i;
@@ -1538,15 +1538,15 @@ static void tcg_context_init(unsigned max_cpus)
      * In user-mode we simply share the init context among threads, since we
      * use a single region. See the documentation tcg_region_init() for the
      * reasoning behind this.
-     * In system-mode we will have at most max_cpus TCG threads.
+     * In system-mode we will have at most max_threads TCG threads.
      */
 #ifdef CONFIG_USER_ONLY
     tcg_ctxs = &tcg_ctx;
     tcg_cur_ctxs = 1;
     tcg_max_ctxs = 1;
 #else
-    tcg_max_ctxs = max_cpus;
-    tcg_ctxs = g_new0(TCGContext *, max_cpus);
+    tcg_max_ctxs = max_threads;
+    tcg_ctxs = g_new0(TCGContext *, max_threads);
 #endif
 
     tcg_debug_assert(!tcg_regset_test_reg(s->reserved_regs, TCG_AREG0));
@@ -1554,10 +1554,10 @@ static void tcg_context_init(unsigned max_cpus)
     tcg_env = temp_tcgv_ptr(ts);
 }
 
-void tcg_init(size_t tb_size, int splitwx, unsigned max_cpus)
+void tcg_init(size_t tb_size, int splitwx, unsigned max_threads)
 {
-    tcg_context_init(max_cpus);
-    tcg_region_init(tb_size, splitwx, max_cpus);
+    tcg_context_init(max_threads);
+    tcg_region_init(tb_size, splitwx, max_threads);
 }
 
 /*
