diff --git a/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/msq/querykit/ShuffleSpecFactories.java b/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/msq/querykit/ShuffleSpecFactories.java
index 8f5770378c55..24f6dfffe27a 100644
--- a/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/msq/querykit/ShuffleSpecFactories.java
+++ b/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/msq/querykit/ShuffleSpecFactories.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 package org.apache.druid.msq.querykit;
 
+import org.apache.druid.frame.key.ClusterBy;
 import org.apache.druid.msq.kernel.GlobalSortMaxCountShuffleSpec;
 import org.apache.druid.msq.kernel.GlobalSortTargetSizeShuffleSpec;
 import org.apache.druid.msq.kernel.MixShuffleSpec;
@@ -69,11 +70,21 @@ public static ShuffleSpecFactory globalSortWithMaxPartitionCount(final int parti
   }
 
   /**
-   * Factory that produces globally sorted partitions of a target size.
+   * Factory that produces globally sorted partitions of a target size, using the {@link ClusterBy} to partition
+   * rows across partitions.
+   *
+   * Produces {@link MixShuffleSpec}, ignoring the target size, if the provided {@link ClusterBy} is empty.
    */
   public static ShuffleSpecFactory getGlobalSortWithTargetSize(int targetSize)
   {
-    return (clusterBy, aggregate) ->
-        new GlobalSortTargetSizeShuffleSpec(clusterBy, targetSize, aggregate);
+    return (clusterBy, aggregate) -> {
+      if (clusterBy.isEmpty()) {
+        // Cannot partition or sort meaningfully because there are no cluster-by keys. Generate a MixShuffleSpec
+        // so everything goes into a single partition.
+        return MixShuffleSpec.instance();
+      } else {
+        return new GlobalSortTargetSizeShuffleSpec(clusterBy, targetSize, aggregate);
+      }
+    };
   }
 }
diff --git a/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/msq/exec/MSQInsertTest.java b/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/msq/exec/MSQInsertTest.java
index 801faac44aff..6662f23d9b1c 100644
--- a/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/msq/exec/MSQInsertTest.java
+++ b/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/msq/exec/MSQInsertTest.java
@@ -1606,6 +1606,38 @@ public void testInsertOnFoo1WithLimit(String contextName, Map<String, Object> co
                      .verifyResults();
   }
 
+  @MethodSource("data")
+  @ParameterizedTest(name = "{index}:with context {0}")
+  public void testInsertOnFoo1NoDimensionsWithLimit(String contextName, Map<String, Object> context)
+  {
+    Map<String, Object> queryContext = ImmutableMap.<String, Object>builder()
+                                                   .putAll(context)
+                                                   .put(MultiStageQueryContext.CTX_ROWS_PER_SEGMENT, 2)
+                                                   .build();
+
+    List<Object[]> expectedRows = ImmutableList.of(new Object[]{DateTimes.utc(0L).getMillis(), 5L});
+
+    RowSignature rowSignature = RowSignature.builder()
+                                            .addTimeColumn()
+                                            .add("cnt", ColumnType.LONG)
+                                            .build();
+
+    testIngestQuery()
+        .setSql("insert into foo1 select count(*) cnt from foo where dim1 != '' limit 4 partitioned by all")
+        .setExpectedDataSource("foo1")
+        .setQueryContext(queryContext)
+        .setExpectedRowSignature(rowSignature)
+        .setExpectedSegments(ImmutableSet.of(SegmentId.of("foo1", Intervals.ETERNITY, "test", 0)))
+        .setExpectedResultRows(expectedRows)
+        .setExpectedMSQSegmentReport(
+            new MSQSegmentReport(
+                NumberedShardSpec.class.getSimpleName(),
+                "Using NumberedShardSpec to generate segments since the query is inserting rows."
+            )
+        )
+        .verifyResults();
+  }
+
   @MethodSource("data")
   @ParameterizedTest(name = "{index}:with context {0}")
   public void testInsertOnRestricted(String contextName, Map<String, Object> context)