diff --git a/src/components/Feed.tsx b/src/components/Feed.tsx
index b9bafcd4..505ff953 100644
--- a/src/components/Feed.tsx
+++ b/src/components/Feed.tsx
@@ -11,8 +11,7 @@ import LoginDialog from '@/components/auth/LoginDialog';
 import SignupDialog from '@/components/auth/SignupDialog';
 import { useFeed } from '@/hooks/useFeed';
 import { useCurrentUser } from '@/hooks/useCurrentUser';
-import { useAuthors } from '@/hooks/useAuthors';
-import { useBatchEventStats } from '@/hooks/useTrending';
+import { usePageBatch } from '@/hooks/usePageBatch';
 import { cn } from '@/lib/utils';
 import type { FeedItem } from '@/hooks/useFeed';
 
@@ -68,26 +67,10 @@ export function Feed() {
     return items;
   }, [data?.pages]);
 
-  // Batch-prefetch all author profiles in a single relay query instead of
-  // firing N individual useAuthor() calls from each NoteCard.  The results
-  // are seeded into the ['author', pubkey] cache so NoteCard's own
-  // useAuthor() resolves instantly from cache.
-  const feedPubkeys = useMemo(() => {
-    const keys = new Set<string>();
-    for (const item of feedItems) {
-      keys.add(item.event.pubkey);
-      if (item.repostedBy) keys.add(item.repostedBy);
-    }
-    return [...keys];
-  }, [feedItems]);
-  useAuthors(feedPubkeys);
-
-  // Batch-prefetch interaction stats for all visible events in a single
-  // relay query instead of firing 2 queries per NoteCard.
-  const feedEventIds = useMemo(() => {
-    return feedItems.map((item) => item.event.id);
-  }, [feedItems]);
-  useBatchEventStats(feedEventIds);
+  // Batch-prefetch authors and stats per page so that each page's cache
+  // entry is stable — adding a new page doesn't invalidate previous pages'
+  // already-fetched data.
+  usePageBatch(data?.pages ?? []);
 
   const handleLogin = () => {
     setLoginDialogOpen(false);
diff --git a/src/components/NoteCard.tsx b/src/components/NoteCard.tsx
index fe1437cf..c93f4e79 100644
--- a/src/components/NoteCard.tsx
+++ b/src/components/NoteCard.tsx
@@ -250,22 +250,22 @@ export function NoteCard({ event, className, repostedBy, compact }: NoteCardProp
       {/* Action buttons — hidden in compact/embed mode */}
       {!compact && (
         <>
-          <div className="flex items-center gap-6 mt-3 -ml-2">
+          <div className="flex items-center justify-between mt-3 -ml-2 max-w-xs sidebar:max-w-none">
             <button
-              className="flex items-center gap-1.5 p-2 rounded-full text-muted-foreground hover:text-primary hover:bg-primary/10 transition-colors"
+              className="flex items-center gap-1 p-2 rounded-full text-muted-foreground hover:text-primary hover:bg-primary/10 transition-colors min-w-0"
               title="Reply"
               onClick={(e) => { e.stopPropagation(); setReplyOpen(true); }}
             >
-              <MessageCircle className="size-[18px]" />
+              <MessageCircle className="size-[18px] shrink-0" />
               {stats?.replies ? <span className="text-sm tabular-nums">{stats.replies}</span> : null}
             </button>
 
             <button
-              className="flex items-center gap-1.5 p-2 rounded-full text-muted-foreground hover:text-green-500 hover:bg-green-500/10 transition-colors"
+              className="flex items-center gap-1 p-2 rounded-full text-muted-foreground hover:text-green-500 hover:bg-green-500/10 transition-colors min-w-0"
               title="Repost"
               onClick={(e) => e.stopPropagation()}
             >
-              <Repeat2 className="size-[18px]" />
+              <Repeat2 className="size-[18px] shrink-0" />
               {(stats?.reposts || stats?.quotes) ? <span className="text-sm tabular-nums">{(stats?.reposts ?? 0) + (stats?.quotes ?? 0)}</span> : null}
             </button>
 
@@ -278,16 +278,16 @@ export function NoteCard({ event, className, repostedBy, compact }: NoteCardProp
 
             <ZapDialog target={event}>
               <button
-                className="flex items-center gap-1.5 p-2 rounded-full text-muted-foreground hover:text-amber-500 hover:bg-amber-500/10 transition-colors"
+                className="flex items-center gap-1 p-2 rounded-full text-muted-foreground hover:text-amber-500 hover:bg-amber-500/10 transition-colors min-w-0"
                 title="Zap"
               >
-                <Zap className="size-[18px]" />
+                <Zap className="size-[18px] shrink-0" />
                 {stats?.zapAmount ? <span className="text-sm tabular-nums">{formatSats(stats.zapAmount)}</span> : null}
               </button>
             </ZapDialog>
 
             <button
-              className="p-2 rounded-full text-muted-foreground hover:text-primary hover:bg-primary/10 transition-colors"
+              className="p-2 rounded-full text-muted-foreground hover:text-primary hover:bg-primary/10 transition-colors shrink-0"
               title="More"
               onClick={(e) => { e.stopPropagation(); setMoreMenuOpen(true); }}
             >
diff --git a/src/hooks/usePageBatch.ts b/src/hooks/usePageBatch.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a65e3ea9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/hooks/usePageBatch.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+/**
+ * usePageBatch — per-page author & stats prefetching for the feed.
+ *
+ * WHY THIS EXISTS
+ * ---------------
+ * The naive approach is to gather all pubkeys / event IDs across every loaded
+ * page into a single array and pass that to useAuthors / useBatchEventStats.
+ * That creates a query key like:
+ *
+ *   ['authors', 'aaa,bbb,ccc,ddd,eee,...']
+ *
+ * When page 2 loads the key changes to:
+ *
+ *   ['authors', 'aaa,bbb,ccc,ddd,eee,...,fff,ggg,...']
+ *
+ * React Query treats this as a completely new query, abandons the old cache
+ * entry, and fires a fresh request for ALL pubkeys.  On page 3 the same thing
+ * happens again.  This means:
+ *   • Each new page causes a full re-fetch of every previous page's data.
+ *   • The ever-growing request may time out or return a truncated result set.
+ *   • Stats / author data appear to "drop" for already-rendered cards.
+ *
+ * THE FIX
+ * -------
+ * Call the batch hooks once per page instead of once for the whole feed.
+ * Each page's cache key is stable after it is first fetched, so loading
+ * page 2 does NOT invalidate page 1's data.
+ *
+ * We render one invisible <PageBatchFetcher> per page.  React's rules of
+ * hooks don't allow dynamic numbers of hook calls, so the per-page work is
+ * delegated to a dedicated component that calls the hooks unconditionally.
+ */
+
+import { useAuthors } from '@/hooks/useAuthors';
+import { useBatchEventStats } from '@/hooks/useTrending';
+import { useMemo } from 'react';
+import type { FeedItem } from '@/hooks/useFeed';
+
+/**
+ * Prefetches authors and event stats for a single feed page.
+ * Designed to be called once per page so the query key stays stable
+ * even as more pages are loaded.
+ */
+export function usePageBatchEntry(page: FeedItem[]) {
+  // Build a stable string fingerprint of the page's event IDs.
+  // This is used as the sole dependency for derived arrays so that
+  // re-renders with the same page content (same array reference or not)
+  // don't trigger new queries.
+  const pageFingerprint = page.length === 0
+    ? ''
+    : page.map((i) => i.event.id).join(',');
+
+  const pubkeys = useMemo(() => {
+    if (pageFingerprint === '') return [] as string[];
+    const keys = new Set<string>();
+    for (const item of page) {
+      keys.add(item.event.pubkey);
+      if (item.repostedBy) keys.add(item.repostedBy);
+    }
+    return [...keys].sort();
+  // pageFingerprint is the stable proxy for the page's contents
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
+  }, [pageFingerprint]);
+
+  const eventIds = useMemo(
+    () => (pageFingerprint === '' ? [] as string[] : page.map((item) => item.event.id)),
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
+  [pageFingerprint],
+  );
+
+  useAuthors(pubkeys);
+  useBatchEventStats(eventIds);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Calls usePageBatchEntry for every page already loaded.
+ *
+ * Because we can't call a variable number of hooks, each page index gets its
+ * own dedicated hook slot.  We support up to MAX_PAGES pages; pages beyond
+ * that still render correctly — their authors/stats fall back to individual
+ * useAuthor / useEventStats queries in NoteCard (same as before this hook
+ * existed).
+ *
+ * In practice feeds rarely exceed ~10 pages before the user stops scrolling,
+ * so MAX_PAGES = 20 is a comfortable upper bound.
+ */
+const MAX_PAGES = 20;
+const EMPTY_PAGE: FeedItem[] = [];
+
+export function usePageBatch(pages: FeedItem[][]) {
+  // Pad to MAX_PAGES so hook call count is always the same
+  const slots = useMemo(() => {
+    const arr: FeedItem[][] = [];
+    for (let i = 0; i < MAX_PAGES; i++) {
+      arr.push(pages[i] ?? EMPTY_PAGE);
+    }
+    return arr;
+  }, [pages]);
+
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[0]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[1]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[2]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[3]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[4]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[5]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[6]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[7]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[8]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[9]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[10]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[11]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[12]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[13]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[14]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[15]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[16]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[17]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[18]);
+  // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/rules-of-hooks
+  usePageBatchEntry(slots[19]);
+}