diff --git a/nextstrain_profiles/nextstrain-gisaid/builds.yaml b/nextstrain_profiles/nextstrain-gisaid/builds.yaml
index d80b7f521..ddd8da201 100644
--- a/nextstrain_profiles/nextstrain-gisaid/builds.yaml
+++ b/nextstrain_profiles/nextstrain-gisaid/builds.yaml
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ auspice_json_prefix: ncov_gisaid
 
 # Define custom rules for pre- or post-standard workflow processing of data.
 custom_rules:
+  - workflow/snakemake_rules/prefilter.smk
   - workflow/snakemake_rules/export_for_nextstrain.smk
 
 # These parameters are only used by the `export_for_nextstrain` rule and shouldn't need to be modified.
@@ -25,7 +26,7 @@ files:
 
 inputs:
   - name: gisaid
-    metadata: "s3://nextstrain-ncov-private/metadata.tsv.zst"
+    metadata: "data/prefiltered_metadata.tsv"
     aligned: "s3://nextstrain-ncov-private/aligned.fasta.zst"
     skip_sanitize_metadata: true
 
diff --git a/workflow/snakemake_rules/main_workflow.smk b/workflow/snakemake_rules/main_workflow.smk
index 4b3f92f12..ddafd8652 100644
--- a/workflow/snakemake_rules/main_workflow.smk
+++ b/workflow/snakemake_rules/main_workflow.smk
@@ -297,6 +297,8 @@ rule subsample:
     params:
         group_by = _get_specific_subsampling_setting("group_by", optional=True),
         group_by_weights = _get_specific_subsampling_setting("group_by_weights", optional=True),
+        # only set this if using group_by_weights
+        output_group_by_weights = lambda wildcards: f"--output-group-by-sizes results/{wildcards.build_name}/sizes-{wildcards.subsample}.tsv" if _get_subsampling_settings(wildcards).get("group_by_weights", False) else "",
         sequences_per_group = _get_specific_subsampling_setting("seq_per_group", optional=True),
         subsample_max_sequences = _get_specific_subsampling_setting("max_sequences", optional=True),
         sampling_scheme = _get_specific_subsampling_setting("sampling_scheme", optional=True),
@@ -330,6 +332,7 @@ rule subsample:
             {params.sequences_per_group} \
             {params.subsample_max_sequences} \
             {params.sampling_scheme} \
+            {params.output_group_by_weights} \
             --output-strains {output.strains} 2>&1 | tee {log}
         """
 
diff --git a/workflow/snakemake_rules/prefilter.smk b/workflow/snakemake_rules/prefilter.smk
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d07f65e54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/workflow/snakemake_rules/prefilter.smk
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+rule download_metadata:
+    params:
+        metadata_url="s3://nextstrain-ncov-private/metadata.tsv.zst",
+    output:
+        metadata="data/metadata.tsv.zst",
+    shell:
+        r"""
+        aws s3 cp {params.metadata_url} {output.metadata}
+        """
+
+rule filter_metadata:
+    input:
+        metadata="data/metadata.tsv.zst",
+        include = config["files"]["include"],
+    output:
+        metadata="data/prefiltered_metadata.tsv",
+    params:
+        max_sequences=500000,
+        group_by="division year month",
+    shell:
+        r"""
+        augur filter \
+            --metadata {input.metadata} \
+            --subsample-max-sequences {params.max_sequences} \
+            --include {input.include} \
+            --group-by {params.group_by} \
+            --output-metadata {output.metadata}
+        """