diff --git a/R-package/R/lgb.Booster.R b/R-package/R/lgb.Booster.R
index bce9e785bf4e..a13516ff6569 100644
--- a/R-package/R/lgb.Booster.R
+++ b/R-package/R/lgb.Booster.R
@@ -307,6 +307,46 @@ Booster <- R6::R6Class(
 
     },
 
+    # Number of trees per iteration
+    num_trees_per_iter = function() {
+
+      self$restore_handle()
+
+      trees_per_iter <- 1L
+      .Call(
+        LGBM_BoosterNumModelPerIteration_R
+        , private$handle
+        , trees_per_iter
+      )
+      return(trees_per_iter)
+
+    },
+
+    # Total number of trees
+    num_trees = function() {
+
+      self$restore_handle()
+
+      ntrees <- 0L
+      .Call(
+        LGBM_BoosterNumberOfTotalModel_R
+        , private$handle
+        , ntrees
+      )
+      return(ntrees)
+
+    },
+
+    # Number of iterations (= rounds)
+    num_iter = function() {
+
+      ntrees <- self$num_trees()
+      trees_per_iter <- self$num_trees_per_iter()
+
+      return(ntrees / trees_per_iter)
+
+    },
+
     # Get upper bound
     upper_bound = function() {
 
diff --git a/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.cpp b/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.cpp
index e8383c5c366e..045f0a9da04b 100644
--- a/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.cpp
+++ b/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.cpp
@@ -763,8 +763,7 @@ SEXP LGBM_BoosterRollbackOneIter_R(SEXP handle) {
   R_API_END();
 }
 
-SEXP LGBM_BoosterGetCurrentIteration_R(SEXP handle,
-  SEXP out) {
+SEXP LGBM_BoosterGetCurrentIteration_R(SEXP handle, SEXP out) {
   R_API_BEGIN();
   _AssertBoosterHandleNotNull(handle);
   int out_iteration;
@@ -774,6 +773,26 @@ SEXP LGBM_BoosterGetCurrentIteration_R(SEXP handle,
   R_API_END();
 }
 
+SEXP LGBM_BoosterNumModelPerIteration_R(SEXP handle, SEXP out) {
+  R_API_BEGIN();
+  _AssertBoosterHandleNotNull(handle);
+  int models_per_iter;
+  CHECK_CALL(LGBM_BoosterNumModelPerIteration(R_ExternalPtrAddr(handle), &models_per_iter));
+  INTEGER(out)[0] = models_per_iter;
+  return R_NilValue;
+  R_API_END();
+}
+
+SEXP LGBM_BoosterNumberOfTotalModel_R(SEXP handle, SEXP out) {
+  R_API_BEGIN();
+  _AssertBoosterHandleNotNull(handle);
+  int total_models;
+  CHECK_CALL(LGBM_BoosterNumberOfTotalModel(R_ExternalPtrAddr(handle), &total_models));
+  INTEGER(out)[0] = total_models;
+  return R_NilValue;
+  R_API_END();
+}
+
 SEXP LGBM_BoosterGetUpperBoundValue_R(SEXP handle,
   SEXP out_result) {
   R_API_BEGIN();
@@ -1431,6 +1450,8 @@ static const R_CallMethodDef CallEntries[] = {
   {"LGBM_BoosterUpdateOneIterCustom_R"           , (DL_FUNC) &LGBM_BoosterUpdateOneIterCustom_R           , 4},
   {"LGBM_BoosterRollbackOneIter_R"               , (DL_FUNC) &LGBM_BoosterRollbackOneIter_R               , 1},
   {"LGBM_BoosterGetCurrentIteration_R"           , (DL_FUNC) &LGBM_BoosterGetCurrentIteration_R           , 2},
+  {"LGBM_BoosterNumModelPerIteration_R"          , (DL_FUNC) &LGBM_BoosterNumModelPerIteration_R          , 2},
+  {"LGBM_BoosterNumberOfTotalModel_R"            , (DL_FUNC) &LGBM_BoosterNumberOfTotalModel_R            , 2},
   {"LGBM_BoosterGetUpperBoundValue_R"            , (DL_FUNC) &LGBM_BoosterGetUpperBoundValue_R            , 2},
   {"LGBM_BoosterGetLowerBoundValue_R"            , (DL_FUNC) &LGBM_BoosterGetLowerBoundValue_R            , 2},
   {"LGBM_BoosterGetEvalNames_R"                  , (DL_FUNC) &LGBM_BoosterGetEvalNames_R                  , 1},
diff --git a/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.h b/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.h
index 574c9733acd9..9d100d095e9e 100644
--- a/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.h
+++ b/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.h
@@ -384,6 +384,28 @@ LIGHTGBM_C_EXPORT SEXP LGBM_BoosterGetCurrentIteration_R(
   SEXP out
 );
 
+/*!
+ * \brief Get number of trees per iteration
+ * \param handle Booster handle
+ * \param out Number of trees per iteration
+ * \return R NULL value
+ */
+LIGHTGBM_C_EXPORT SEXP LGBM_BoosterNumModelPerIteration_R(
+    SEXP handle,
+    SEXP out
+);
+
+/*!
+ * \brief Get total number of trees
+ * \param handle Booster handle
+ * \param out Total number of trees of Booster
+ * \return R NULL value
+ */
+LIGHTGBM_C_EXPORT SEXP LGBM_BoosterNumberOfTotalModel_R(
+    SEXP handle,
+    SEXP out
+);
+
 /*!
 * \brief Get model upper bound value.
 * \param handle Handle of Booster
diff --git a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_lgb.Booster.R b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_lgb.Booster.R
index e81dc89673e0..80cf7775813d 100644
--- a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_lgb.Booster.R
+++ b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_lgb.Booster.R
@@ -623,6 +623,174 @@ test_that("Booster$update() throws an informative error if you provide a non-Dat
     }, regexp = "lgb.Booster.update: Only can use lgb.Dataset", fixed = TRUE)
 })
 
+test_that("Booster$num_trees_per_iter() works as expected", {
+  set.seed(708L)
+
+  X <- data.matrix(iris[2L:4L])
+  y_reg <- iris[, 1L]
+  y_binary <- as.integer(y_reg > median(y_reg))
+  y_class <- as.integer(iris[, 5L]) - 1L
+  num_class <- 3L
+
+  nrounds <- 10L
+
+  # Regression and binary probabilistic classification (1 iteration = 1 tree)
+  fit_reg <- lgb.train(
+    params = list(
+      objective = "mse"
+      , verbose = .LGB_VERBOSITY
+      , num_threads = .LGB_MAX_THREADS
+    )
+    , data = lgb.Dataset(X, label = y_reg)
+    , nrounds = nrounds
+  )
+
+  fit_binary <- lgb.train(
+    params = list(
+      objective = "binary"
+      , verbose = .LGB_VERBOSITY
+      , num_threads = .LGB_MAX_THREADS
+    )
+    , data = lgb.Dataset(X, label = y_binary)
+    , nrounds = nrounds
+  )
+
+  # Multiclass probabilistic classification (1 iteration = num_class trees)
+  fit_class <- lgb.train(
+    params = list(
+      objective = "multiclass"
+      , verbose = .LGB_VERBOSITY
+      , num_threads = .LGB_MAX_THREADS
+      , num_class = num_class
+    )
+    , data = lgb.Dataset(X, label = y_class)
+    , nrounds = nrounds
+  )
+
+  expect_equal(fit_reg$num_trees_per_iter(), 1L)
+  expect_equal(fit_binary$num_trees_per_iter(), 1L)
+  expect_equal(fit_class$num_trees_per_iter(), num_class)
+})
+
+test_that("Booster$num_trees() and $num_iter() works (no early stopping)", {
+  set.seed(708L)
+
+  X <- data.matrix(iris[2L:4L])
+  y_reg <- iris[, 1L]
+  y_binary <- as.integer(y_reg > median(y_reg))
+  y_class <- as.integer(iris[, 5L]) - 1L
+  num_class <- 3L
+  nrounds <- 10L
+
+  # Regression and binary probabilistic classification (1 iteration = 1 tree)
+  fit_reg <- lgb.train(
+    params = list(
+      objective = "mse"
+      , verbose = .LGB_VERBOSITY
+      , num_threads = .LGB_MAX_THREADS
+    )
+    , data = lgb.Dataset(X, label = y_reg)
+    , nrounds = nrounds
+  )
+
+  fit_binary <- lgb.train(
+    params = list(
+      objective = "binary"
+      , verbose = .LGB_VERBOSITY
+      , num_threads = .LGB_MAX_THREADS
+    )
+    , data = lgb.Dataset(X, label = y_binary)
+    , nrounds = nrounds
+  )
+
+  # Multiclass probabilistic classification (1 iteration = num_class trees)
+  fit_class <- lgb.train(
+    params = list(
+      objective = "multiclass"
+      , verbose = .LGB_VERBOSITY
+      , num_threads = .LGB_MAX_THREADS
+      , num_class = num_class
+    )
+    , data = lgb.Dataset(X, label = y_class)
+    , nrounds = nrounds
+  )
+
+  expect_equal(fit_reg$num_trees(), nrounds)
+  expect_equal(fit_binary$num_trees(), nrounds)
+  expect_equal(fit_class$num_trees(), num_class * nrounds)
+
+  expect_equal(fit_reg$num_iter(), nrounds)
+  expect_equal(fit_binary$num_iter(), nrounds)
+  expect_equal(fit_class$num_iter(), nrounds)
+})
+
+test_that("Booster$num_trees() and $num_iter() work (with early stopping)", {
+  set.seed(708L)
+
+  X <- data.matrix(iris[2L:4L])
+  y_reg <- iris[, 1L]
+  y_binary <- as.integer(y_reg > median(y_reg))
+  y_class <- as.integer(iris[, 5L]) - 1L
+  train_ix <- c(1L:40L, 51L:90L, 101L:140L)
+  X_train <- X[train_ix, ]
+  X_valid <- X[-train_ix, ]
+
+  num_class <- 3L
+  nrounds <- 1000L
+  early_stopping <- 2L
+
+  # Regression and binary probabilistic classification (1 iteration = 1 tree)
+  fit_reg <- lgb.train(
+    params = list(
+      objective = "mse"
+      , verbose = .LGB_VERBOSITY
+      , num_threads = .LGB_MAX_THREADS
+    )
+    , data = lgb.Dataset(X_train, label = y_reg[train_ix])
+    , valids = list(valid = lgb.Dataset(X_valid, label = y_reg[-train_ix]))
+    , nrounds = nrounds
+    , early_stopping_round = early_stopping
+  )
+
+  fit_binary <- lgb.train(
+    params = list(
+      objective = "binary"
+      , verbose = .LGB_VERBOSITY
+      , num_threads = .LGB_MAX_THREADS
+    )
+    , data = lgb.Dataset(X_train, label = y_binary[train_ix])
+    , valids = list(valid = lgb.Dataset(X_valid, label = y_binary[-train_ix]))
+    , nrounds = nrounds
+    , early_stopping_round = early_stopping
+  )
+
+  # Multiclass probabilistic classification (1 iteration = num_class trees)
+  fit_class <- lgb.train(
+    params = list(
+      objective = "multiclass"
+      , verbose = .LGB_VERBOSITY
+      , num_threads = .LGB_MAX_THREADS
+      , num_class = num_class
+    )
+    , data = lgb.Dataset(X_train, label = y_class[train_ix])
+    , valids = list(valid = lgb.Dataset(X_valid, label = y_class[-train_ix]))
+    , nrounds = nrounds
+    , early_stopping_round = early_stopping
+  )
+
+  expected_trees_reg <- fit_reg$best_iter + early_stopping
+  expected_trees_binary <- fit_binary$best_iter + early_stopping
+  expected_trees_class <- (fit_class$best_iter + early_stopping) * num_class
+
+  expect_equal(fit_reg$num_trees(), expected_trees_reg)
+  expect_equal(fit_binary$num_trees(), expected_trees_binary)
+  expect_equal(fit_class$num_trees(), expected_trees_class)
+
+  expect_equal(fit_reg$num_iter(), expected_trees_reg)
+  expect_equal(fit_binary$num_iter(), expected_trees_binary)
+  expect_equal(fit_class$num_iter(), expected_trees_class / num_class)
+})
+
 test_that("Booster should store parameters and Booster$reset_parameter() should update them", {
     data(agaricus.train, package = "lightgbm")
     dtrain <- lgb.Dataset(