diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
index fb979a77dacea..bce00ae8f6d3a 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
@@ -601,7 +601,6 @@ class BuildPlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
                 } else {
                     options.fork = true
                     options.forkOptions.javaHome = compilerJavaHomeFile
-                    options.forkOptions.memoryMaximumSize = "512m"
                 }
                 if (targetCompatibilityVersion == JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8) {
                     // compile with compact 3 profile by default
diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index 08b03629ad53a..6b04e99c20441 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 org.gradle.daemon=false
 org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx2g
+options.forkOptions.memoryMaximumSize=2g