diff --git a/CHANGELOG-WIP.md b/CHANGELOG-WIP.md
index 1e557d0bc34..f0821d2c336 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG-WIP.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG-WIP.md
@@ -30,4 +30,5 @@
 - Image cleansing now preserves the original image quality, if known.
 - Fixed a bug where `craft\config\GeneralConfig::safeMode()` set Safe Mode to `false` by default.
 - Fixed a bug where Craft wasn’t auto-rotating or flipping images uploaded with a mirrored EXIF orientation.
+- Fixed a bug where elements weren’t getting returned in a consistent order when `orderBy` was set to `RAND(X)` across varying `limit` param values. ([#16432](https://github.com/craftcms/cms/issues/16432))
 - Updated Twig to 3.15. ([#16207](https://github.com/craftcms/cms/discussions/16207))
diff --git a/src/elements/db/ElementQuery.php b/src/elements/db/ElementQuery.php
index c0798b58a53..02a9d0ef652 100644
--- a/src/elements/db/ElementQuery.php
+++ b/src/elements/db/ElementQuery.php
@@ -3051,7 +3051,8 @@ private function _applyOrderByParams(YiiConnection $db): void
             unset($direction);
         }
 
-        $this->query->orderBy($orderBy);
+        // No need to set orderBy on $this->query. And doing so breaks RAND(X).
+        // (see https://github.com/craftcms/cms/issues/16432)
         $this->subQuery->orderBy($orderBy);
     }