diff --git a/lib/go/thrift/binary_protocol.go b/lib/go/thrift/binary_protocol.go
index eded931346e..e8156ea0176 100644
--- a/lib/go/thrift/binary_protocol.go
+++ b/lib/go/thrift/binary_protocol.go
@@ -555,6 +555,15 @@ func safeReadBytes(size int32, trans io.Reader) ([]byte, error) {
 		return nil, nil
 	}
 
+	// Fast path for reads smaller than 10 MiB that only allocates exactly
+	// what is asked for.
+	const readLimit = 10 * 1024 * 1024
+	if size < readLimit {
+		b := make([]byte, size)
+		n, err := io.ReadFull(trans, b)
+		return b[:n], err
+	}
+
 	buf := new(bytes.Buffer)
 	_, err := io.CopyN(buf, trans, int64(size))
 	return buf.Bytes(), err