diff --git a/src/output-json.c b/src/output-json.c
index 1d9f8b214692..00d99fc6972c 100644
--- a/src/output-json.c
+++ b/src/output-json.c
@@ -987,8 +987,23 @@ int OutputJsonBuilderBuffer(JsonBuilder *js, OutputJsonThreadCtx *ctx)
     }
 
     size_t jslen = jb_len(js);
-    if (MEMBUFFER_OFFSET(*buffer) + jslen >= MEMBUFFER_SIZE(*buffer)) {
-        MemBufferExpand(buffer, jslen);
+    DEBUG_VALIDATE_BUG_ON(jb_len(js) > UINT32_MAX);
+    size_t remaining = MEMBUFFER_SIZE(*buffer) - MEMBUFFER_OFFSET(*buffer);
+    if (jslen >= remaining) {
+        size_t expand_by = jslen + 1 - remaining;
+        if (MemBufferExpand(buffer, (uint32_t)expand_by) < 0) {
+            if (!ctx->too_large_warning) {
+                /* Log a warning once, and include enough of the log
+                 * message to hopefully identify the event_type. */
+                char partial[120];
+                size_t partial_len = MIN(sizeof(partial), jslen);
+                memcpy(partial, jb_ptr(js), partial_len - 1);
+                partial[partial_len - 1] = '\0';
+                SCLogWarning("Formatted JSON EVE record too large, will be dropped: %s", partial);
+                ctx->too_large_warning = true;
+            }
+            return 0;
+        }
     }
 
     MemBufferWriteRaw((*buffer), jb_ptr(js), jslen);
diff --git a/src/output-json.h b/src/output-json.h
index 74d07bb8a2c8..dca6e88e700a 100644
--- a/src/output-json.h
+++ b/src/output-json.h
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ typedef struct OutputJsonThreadCtx_ {
     OutputJsonCtx *ctx;
     LogFileCtx *file_ctx;
     MemBuffer *buffer;
+    bool too_large_warning;
 } OutputJsonThreadCtx;
 
 json_t *SCJsonString(const char *val);
diff --git a/src/util-buffer.c b/src/util-buffer.c
index 05b365825818..cfc190087ee7 100644
--- a/src/util-buffer.c
+++ b/src/util-buffer.c
@@ -65,6 +65,11 @@ int MemBufferExpand(MemBuffer **buffer, uint32_t expand_by) {
         return -1;
     }
 
+    /* Adjust expand_by to next multiple of 4k. */
+    if (expand_by % 4096 != 0) {
+        expand_by = expand_by - (expand_by % 4096) + 4096;
+    }
+
     size_t total_size = (*buffer)->size + sizeof(MemBuffer) + expand_by;
 
     MemBuffer *tbuffer = SCRealloc(*buffer, total_size);