diff --git a/src/common/psprintf.c b/src/common/psprintf.c
index c1d2807cea9..54a8fe93dee 100644
--- a/src/common/psprintf.c
+++ b/src/common/psprintf.c
@@ -24,9 +24,6 @@
 
 #include "postgres_fe.h"
 
-/* It's possible we could use a different value for this in frontend code */
-#define MaxAllocSize	((Size) 0x3fffffff) /* 1 gigabyte - 1 */
-
 #endif
 
 
diff --git a/src/common/saslprep.c b/src/common/saslprep.c
index 80b9edb3968..bc1b0240594 100644
--- a/src/common/saslprep.c
+++ b/src/common/saslprep.c
@@ -24,10 +24,6 @@
 #include "utils/memutils.h"
 #else
 #include "postgres_fe.h"
-
-/* It's possible we could use a different value for this in frontend code */
-#define MaxAllocSize	((Size) 0x3fffffff) /* 1 gigabyte - 1 */
-
 #endif
 
 #include "common/saslprep.h"
diff --git a/src/common/stringinfo.c b/src/common/stringinfo.c
index 05b22b5c53c..de4a1775848 100644
--- a/src/common/stringinfo.c
+++ b/src/common/stringinfo.c
@@ -24,9 +24,6 @@
 
 #include "postgres_fe.h"
 
-/* It's possible we could use a different value for this in frontend code */
-#define MaxAllocSize	((Size) 0x3fffffff) /* 1 gigabyte - 1 */
-
 #endif
 
 #include "lib/stringinfo.h"
diff --git a/src/include/common/fe_memutils.h b/src/include/common/fe_memutils.h
index 84cc61e7f0e..a6702a562ff 100644
--- a/src/include/common/fe_memutils.h
+++ b/src/include/common/fe_memutils.h
@@ -9,6 +9,18 @@
 #ifndef FE_MEMUTILS_H
 #define FE_MEMUTILS_H
 
+/*
+ * Assumed maximum size for allocation requests.
+ *
+ * We don't enforce this, so the actual maximum is the platform's SIZE_MAX.
+ * But it's useful to have it defined in frontend builds, so that common
+ * code can check for oversized requests without having frontend-vs-backend
+ * differences.  Also, some code relies on MaxAllocSize being no more than
+ * INT_MAX/2, so rather than setting this to SIZE_MAX, make it the same as
+ * the backend's value.
+ */
+#define MaxAllocSize	((Size) 0x3fffffff) /* 1 gigabyte - 1 */
+
 /*
  * Flags for pg_malloc_extended and palloc_extended, deliberately named
  * the same as the backend flags.