diff --git a/src/v/cloud_storage/remote_segment.cc b/src/v/cloud_storage/remote_segment.cc
index 141198832a028..09fd7071622fb 100644
--- a/src/v/cloud_storage/remote_segment.cc
+++ b/src/v/cloud_storage/remote_segment.cc
@@ -901,8 +901,6 @@ ss::future<> remote_segment::hydrate() {
       .discard_result();
 }
 
-ss::future<> remote_segment::hydrate_chunk(
-  chunk_start_offset_t start, std::optional<chunk_start_offset_t> end) {
 remote_segment::consume_stream::consume_stream(
   remote_segment& remote_segment, segment_chunk_range range)
   : _segment{remote_segment}
@@ -920,20 +918,20 @@ ss::future<uint64_t> remote_segment::consume_stream::operator()(
     }
     co_return size;
 }
+
+ss::future<> remote_segment::hydrate_chunk(segment_chunk_range range) {
     retry_chain_node rtc{
       cache_hydration_timeout, cache_hydration_backoff, &_rtc};
 
-    const auto space_required = end.value_or(_size - 1) - start + 1;
+    const auto start = range.first_offset();
+    const auto end = range.last_offset().value_or(_size - 1);
+
+    const auto space_required = end - start + 1;
     const auto reserved = co_await _cache.reserve_space(space_required);
 
+    auto consumer = consume_stream{*this, std::move(range)};
     auto res = co_await _api.download_segment(
-      _bucket,
-      _path,
-      [this, start](auto size, auto stream) {
-          return put_chunk_in_cache(size, std::move(stream), start);
-      },
-      rtc,
-      std::make_pair(start, end.value_or(_size - 1)));
+      _bucket, _path, std::move(consumer), rtc, std::make_pair(start, end));
     if (res != download_result::success) {
         throw download_exception{res, _path};
     }
diff --git a/src/v/cloud_storage/remote_segment.h b/src/v/cloud_storage/remote_segment.h
index 4cc575dbae99c..e8681df091e65 100644
--- a/src/v/cloud_storage/remote_segment.h
+++ b/src/v/cloud_storage/remote_segment.h
@@ -130,11 +130,10 @@ class remote_segment final {
     /// implementation, but the index is still required to be present first.
     ss::future<> hydrate();
 
-    /// Hydrate a part of a segment, identified by the given start and end
-    /// offsets. If the end offset is std::nullopt, the last offset in the file
-    /// is used as the end offset.
-    ss::future<> hydrate_chunk(
-      chunk_start_offset_t start, std::optional<chunk_start_offset_t> end);
+    /// Hydrate a part of a segment, identified by the given range. The range
+    /// can contain data for multiple contiguous chunks, in which case multiple
+    /// files are written to cache.
+    ss::future<> hydrate_chunk(segment_chunk_range range);
 
     /// Loads the segment chunk file from cache into an open file handle. If the
     /// file is not present in cache, the returned file handle is unopened.
diff --git a/src/v/cloud_storage/segment_chunk_api.cc b/src/v/cloud_storage/segment_chunk_api.cc
index b39ae4de2c95c..707c90054bf6f 100644
--- a/src/v/cloud_storage/segment_chunk_api.cc
+++ b/src/v/cloud_storage/segment_chunk_api.cc
@@ -121,7 +121,10 @@ segment_chunks::do_hydrate_and_materialize(chunk_start_offset_t chunk_start) {
         chunk_end = next->first - 1;
     }
 
-    co_await _segment.hydrate_chunk(chunk_start, chunk_end);
+    // TODO (abhijat) - use property here!
+    size_t prefetch = 3;
+    co_await _segment.hydrate_chunk(
+      segment_chunk_range{_chunks, prefetch, chunk_start});
     co_return co_await _segment.materialize_chunk(chunk_start);
 }