diff --git a/news/changelog-1.7.md b/news/changelog-1.7.md
index 2071de9389..056122e91b 100644
--- a/news/changelog-1.7.md
+++ b/news/changelog-1.7.md
@@ -173,6 +173,7 @@ All changes included in 1.7:
 - ([#11951](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/11951)): Raw LaTeX table without `tbl-` prefix label for using Quarto crossref are now correctly passed through unmodified.
 - ([#11967](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/11967)): Produce a better error message when YAML metadata with `!expr` tags are used outside of `knitr` code cells.
 - ([#12117](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/12117)): Color output to stdout and stderr is now correctly rendered for `html` format in the Jupyter and Julia engines.
+- ([#12167](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/12167)): Figure numbering for multiple top-level figures and not as Sub-Figures.
 - ([#12264](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/12264)): Upgrade `dart-sass` to 1.85.1.
 - ([#12238](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/12238)): Do not truncate very long console errors (e.g. in Jupyter Notebook with backtrace).
 - ([#12338](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/12338)): Add an additional workaround for the SCSS parser used in color variable extraction.
diff --git a/src/core/jupyter/jupyter.ts b/src/core/jupyter/jupyter.ts
index a3e5923f79..3fc1a4a20a 100644
--- a/src/core/jupyter/jupyter.ts
+++ b/src/core/jupyter/jupyter.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 import { ensureDirSync, walkSync } from "../../deno_ral/fs.ts";
 import { dirname, extname, join, relative } from "../../deno_ral/path.ts";
+import { warning } from "../../deno_ral/log.ts";
 import * as colors from "fmt/colors";
 import { decodeBase64 as base64decode } from "encoding/base64";
 import { stringify } from "../yaml.ts";
@@ -1554,10 +1555,22 @@ async function mdFromCodeCell(
 
     for (const { index, output } of sortedOutputs) {
       // compute output label
-      const outputLabel = label && labelCellContainer && isDisplayData(output)
-        ? (label + "-" + nextOutputSuffix++)
-        : label;
-
+      let outputLabel_tmp = label;
+      if (label &&
+        (
+          labelCellContainer ||
+          (Array.isArray(sortedOutputs) && (sortedOutputs.length > 1))
+        ) &&
+        isDisplayData(output)) {
+        outputLabel_tmp = label + "-" + nextOutputSuffix++;
+        // If the user specifies a top-level array for images but also labels give a warning.
+        if (labelCellContainer === false &&
+          (Array.isArray(sortedOutputs) == true && (sortedOutputs.length > 1))
+        ) {
+          warning("Warning: using multiple top-level figures with labels might result in unwanted behaviour: " + label)
+        }
+      }
+      const outputLabel = outputLabel_tmp
       // If this output has been marked to not be displayed
       // just continue
       if (output.metadata?.[kQuartoOutputDisplay] === false) {