diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/profiling/common/topn.ts b/x-pack/plugins/profiling/common/topn.ts
index 65ea193d85e02..bce287cf281f1 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/profiling/common/topn.ts
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/profiling/common/topn.ts
@@ -255,10 +255,22 @@ export function groupSamplesByCategory({
     rotations: Math.ceil(subcharts.length / 10),
   });
 
+  // We want the mapping from the category string to the color to be constant,
+  // so that the same category string will always map to the same color.
+  const stringhash = (s: string): number => {
+    let hash: number = 0;
+    for (let i = 0; i < s.length; i++) {
+      const ch = s.charCodeAt(i);
+      hash = (hash << 5) - hash + ch; // eslint-disable-line no-bitwise
+      hash &= hash; // eslint-disable-line no-bitwise
+    }
+    return hash % subcharts.length;
+  };
+
   return orderBy(subcharts, ['Percentage', 'Category'], ['desc', 'asc']).map((chart, index) => {
     return {
       ...chart,
-      Color: colors[index],
+      Color: colors[stringhash(chart.Category)],
       Index: index + 1,
       Series: chart.Series.map((value) => {
         return {