diff --git a/src/main/java/net/starlark/java/eval/MutableStarlarkList.java b/src/main/java/net/starlark/java/eval/MutableStarlarkList.java
index 51199f585bbb1d..325d9e9ab8b929 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/starlark/java/eval/MutableStarlarkList.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/starlark/java/eval/MutableStarlarkList.java
@@ -123,10 +123,7 @@ private void grow(int mincap) {
 
   // Grow capacity enough to insert given number of elements
   private void growAdditional(int additional) throws EvalException {
-    int mincap = size + additional;
-    if (mincap < 0 || mincap > MAX_ALLOC) {
-      throw Starlark.errorf("excessive capacity requested (%d + %d elements)", size, additional);
-    }
+    int mincap = addSizesAndFailIfExcessive(size, additional);
     grow(mincap);
   }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/starlark/java/eval/StarlarkList.java b/src/main/java/net/starlark/java/eval/StarlarkList.java
index 81837301a93d66..00157461713562 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/starlark/java/eval/StarlarkList.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/starlark/java/eval/StarlarkList.java
@@ -204,17 +204,28 @@ public static <T> StarlarkList<T> immutableOf(T... elems) {
   /**
    * Returns a new {@code StarlarkList} that is the concatenation of two {@code StarlarkList}s. The
    * new list will have the given {@link Mutability}.
+   *
+   * @throws EvalException if the resulting list would be too large
    */
   public static <T> StarlarkList<T> concat(
-      StarlarkList<? extends T> x, StarlarkList<? extends T> y, Mutability mutability) {
+      StarlarkList<? extends T> x, StarlarkList<? extends T> y, Mutability mutability)
+      throws EvalException {
     int xsize = x.size();
     int ysize = y.size();
-    Object[] res = new Object[xsize + ysize];
+    Object[] res = new Object[addSizesAndFailIfExcessive(xsize, ysize)];
     System.arraycopy(x.elems(), 0, res, 0, xsize);
     System.arraycopy(y.elems(), 0, res, xsize, ysize);
     return wrap(mutability, res);
   }
 
+  protected static int addSizesAndFailIfExcessive(int xsize, int ysize) throws EvalException {
+    int sum = xsize + ysize;
+    if (sum < 0 || sum > MAX_ALLOC) {
+      throw Starlark.errorf("excessive capacity requested (%d + %d elements)", xsize, ysize);
+    }
+    return sum;
+  }
+
   @Nonnull
   @Override
   public Iterator<E> iterator() {
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/starlark/java/eval/BUILD b/src/test/java/net/starlark/java/eval/BUILD
index 3249dc9e1dea0b..39473a4dc04e00 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/starlark/java/eval/BUILD
+++ b/src/test/java/net/starlark/java/eval/BUILD
@@ -32,7 +32,11 @@ java_test(
         "StarlarkThreadDebuggingTest.java",
         "StarlarkThreadTest.java",
     ],
-    jvm_flags = ["-Dfile.encoding=UTF8"],
+    jvm_flags = [
+        "-Dfile.encoding=UTF8",
+        # StarlarkListTest.concat_failsCleanlyOnOverflow() needs at least 4GB of max heap
+        "-Xmx4096m",
+    ],
     deps = [
         "//src/main/java/net/starlark/java/annot",
         "//src/main/java/net/starlark/java/eval",
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/starlark/java/eval/StarlarkListTest.java b/src/test/java/net/starlark/java/eval/StarlarkListTest.java
index 2dc9255332fb19..75e4fd4ee7a35e 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/starlark/java/eval/StarlarkListTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/starlark/java/eval/StarlarkListTest.java
@@ -187,6 +187,20 @@ public void testTupleToArray() {
     }
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void concat_failsCleanlyOnOverflow() throws Exception {
+    System.gc();
+    Mutability mu = Mutability.create("test");
+    // veryBigArray is large enough that veryBigArray.size * 2 > StarlarkList.MAX_ALLOC
+    Object[] veryBigArray = new Object[(1 << 29) + 1]; // This will OOM if jvm max heap is too low.
+    StarlarkList<Object> veryBigList = StarlarkList.wrap(mu, veryBigArray);
+    EvalException e =
+        assertThrows(EvalException.class, () -> StarlarkList.concat(veryBigList, veryBigList, mu));
+    assertThat(e)
+        .hasMessageThat()
+        .isEqualTo("excessive capacity requested (536870913 + 536870913 elements)");
+  }
+
   @FormatMethod
   private static void fail(@FormatString String format, Object... args) {
     throw new AssertionError(String.format(format, args));