diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/scheduler/sched_main.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/scheduler/sched_main.c
index c0b9822d6274..4d4219fbe49d 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/scheduler/sched_main.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/scheduler/sched_main.c
@@ -1218,20 +1218,23 @@ static void drm_sched_run_job_work(struct work_struct *w)
 	drm_sched_job_begin(sched_job);
 
 	trace_drm_run_job(sched_job, entity);
+	/*
+	 * The run_job() callback must by definition return a fence whose
+	 * refcount has been incremented for the scheduler already.
+	 */
 	fence = sched->ops->run_job(sched_job);
 	complete_all(&entity->entity_idle);
 	drm_sched_fence_scheduled(s_fence, fence);
 
 	if (!IS_ERR_OR_NULL(fence)) {
-		/* Drop for original kref_init of the fence */
-		dma_fence_put(fence);
-
 		r = dma_fence_add_callback(fence, &sched_job->cb,
 					   drm_sched_job_done_cb);
 		if (r == -ENOENT)
 			drm_sched_job_done(sched_job, fence->error);
 		else if (r)
 			DRM_DEV_ERROR(sched->dev, "fence add callback failed (%d)\n", r);
+
+		dma_fence_put(fence);
 	} else {
 		drm_sched_job_done(sched_job, IS_ERR(fence) ?
 				   PTR_ERR(fence) : 0);