In all organisms ribosome-associated chaperones assist early steps of protein folding. To elucidate the mechanism of their action, we determined the kinetics of individual steps of the ribosome binding/release cycle of bacterial Trigger Factor (TF), using fluorescently labeled chaperone and ribosome-nascent chain complexes. Both the association and dissociation rates of TF-ribosome complexes are modulated by nascent chains, whereby their length, sequence and folding status are influencing parameters. The effect of the folding status is, however, modest, indicating that TF can bind small globular domains and accommodate them within its substrate binding cavity. In general, the presence of a nascent chain causes an up to 9-fold increase in the rate of TF association, which provides a kinetic explanation for the observed ability of TF to efficiently compete with other cytosolic chaperones for binding to nascent chains. Furthermore, a subset of longer nascent polypeptides promotes the stabilization of TF-ribosome complexes, which increases the half-life of these complexes from 15 up to 50 seconds. Nascent chains thus regulate their folding environment generated by ribosome-associated chaperones.