diff --git a/sdk/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/dataflow/sdk/io/BigQueryIO.java b/sdk/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/dataflow/sdk/io/BigQueryIO.java
index 6263c0b64aa96..fefc84e8beb52 100644
--- a/sdk/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/dataflow/sdk/io/BigQueryIO.java
+++ b/sdk/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/dataflow/sdk/io/BigQueryIO.java
@@ -1463,8 +1463,8 @@ public static class Bound extends PTransform<PCollection<TableRow>, PDone> {
       // Maximum number of files in a single partition.
       static final int MAX_NUM_FILES = 10000;
 
-      // Maximum number of bytes in a single partition.
-      static final long MAX_SIZE_BYTES = 3 * (1L << 40);
+      // Maximum number of bytes in a single partition -- 11 TiB just under BQ's 12 TiB limit.
+      static final long MAX_SIZE_BYTES = 11 * (1L << 40);
 
       // The maximum number of retry jobs.
       static final int MAX_RETRY_JOBS = 3;