diff --git a/ci/build_wheel_pylibraft.sh b/ci/build_wheel_pylibraft.sh
index dacaa1190e..dd62ab5399 100755
--- a/ci/build_wheel_pylibraft.sh
+++ b/ci/build_wheel_pylibraft.sh
@@ -18,4 +18,4 @@ esac
 export SKBUILD_CMAKE_ARGS="-DDETECT_CONDA_ENV=OFF;-DFIND_RAFT_CPP=OFF${EXTRA_CMAKE_ARGS}"
 
 ci/build_wheel.sh pylibraft ${package_dir}
-ci/validate_wheel.sh ${package_dir} final_dist
+ci/validate_wheel.sh ${package_dir} final_dist pylibraft
diff --git a/ci/build_wheel_raft_dask.sh b/ci/build_wheel_raft_dask.sh
index e4f3f0a833..d49d131abf 100755
--- a/ci/build_wheel_raft_dask.sh
+++ b/ci/build_wheel_raft_dask.sh
@@ -9,4 +9,4 @@ package_dir="python/raft-dask"
 export SKBUILD_CMAKE_ARGS="-DDETECT_CONDA_ENV=OFF;-DFIND_RAFT_CPP=OFF"
 
 ci/build_wheel.sh raft-dask ${package_dir}
-ci/validate_wheel.sh ${package_dir} final_dist
+ci/validate_wheel.sh ${package_dir} final_dist raft-dask
diff --git a/ci/validate_wheel.sh b/ci/validate_wheel.sh
index 5910a5c59f..5ef72ad895 100755
--- a/ci/validate_wheel.sh
+++ b/ci/validate_wheel.sh
@@ -5,6 +5,29 @@ set -euo pipefail
 
 package_dir=$1
 wheel_dir_relative_path=$2
+package_name=$3
+
+RAPIDS_CUDA_MAJOR="${RAPIDS_CUDA_VERSION%%.*}"
+
+# some packages are much larger on CUDA 11 than on CUDA 12
+if [[ "${package_name}" == "raft-dask" ]]; then
+    PYDISTCHECK_ARGS=(
+        --max-allowed-size-compressed '200M'
+    )
+elif [[ "${package_name}" == "pylibraft" ]]; then
+    if [[ "${RAPIDS_CUDA_MAJOR}" == "11" ]]; then
+        PYDISTCHECK_ARGS=(
+            --max-allowed-size-compressed '600M'
+        )
+    else
+        PYDISTCHECK_ARGS=(
+            --max-allowed-size-compressed '100M'
+        )
+    fi
+else
+    echo "Unsupported package name: ${package_name}"
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 cd "${package_dir}"
 
@@ -12,6 +35,7 @@ rapids-logger "validate packages with 'pydistcheck'"
 
 pydistcheck \
     --inspect \
+    "${PYDISTCHECK_ARGS[@]}" \
     "$(echo ${wheel_dir_relative_path}/*.whl)"
 
 rapids-logger "validate packages with 'twine'"
diff --git a/python/pylibraft/pyproject.toml b/python/pylibraft/pyproject.toml
index 3502d82fd4..ba454af591 100644
--- a/python/pylibraft/pyproject.toml
+++ b/python/pylibraft/pyproject.toml
@@ -132,12 +132,10 @@ matrix-entry = "cuda_suffixed=true;use_cuda_wheels=true"
 
 [tool.pydistcheck]
 select = [
+    # NOTE: size threshold is managed via CLI args in CI scripts
     "distro-too-large-compressed",
 ]
 
-# detect when package size grows significantly
-max_allowed_size_compressed = '825M'
-
 [tool.pytest.ini_options]
 filterwarnings = [
     "error",