diff --git a/pkg/sql/execinfra/processorsbase.go b/pkg/sql/execinfra/processorsbase.go
index 65a7a4383462..0466cf3228f1 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/execinfra/processorsbase.go
+++ b/pkg/sql/execinfra/processorsbase.go
@@ -949,20 +949,6 @@ func NewLimitedMonitor(
 	return limitedMon
 }
 
-// NewLimitedMonitorNoDiskSpill is a utility function used by processors to
-// create a new limited memory monitor with the given name and start it. The
-// returned monitor must be closed. The limit is determined by
-// SessionData.WorkMemLimit (stored inside of the flowCtx) but overridden to
-// ServerConfig.TestingKnobs.MemoryLimitBytes if that knob is set.
-// ServerConfig.TestingKnobs.ForceDiskSpill is ignored by this function.
-func NewLimitedMonitorNoDiskSpill(
-	ctx context.Context, parent *mon.BytesMonitor, flowCtx *FlowCtx, name string,
-) *mon.BytesMonitor {
-	limitedMon := mon.NewMonitorInheritWithLimit(name, GetWorkMemLimitNoDiskSpill(flowCtx), parent)
-	limitedMon.Start(ctx, parent, mon.BoundAccount{})
-	return limitedMon
-}
-
 // NewLimitedMonitorNoFlowCtx is the same as NewLimitedMonitor and should be
 // used when the caller doesn't have an access to *FlowCtx.
 func NewLimitedMonitorNoFlowCtx(
diff --git a/pkg/sql/execinfra/server_config.go b/pkg/sql/execinfra/server_config.go
index d9390b53bf5d..381556bcabed 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/execinfra/server_config.go
+++ b/pkg/sql/execinfra/server_config.go
@@ -268,14 +268,6 @@ func GetWorkMemLimit(flowCtx *FlowCtx) int64 {
 	if flowCtx.Cfg.TestingKnobs.ForceDiskSpill {
 		return 1
 	}
-	return GetWorkMemLimitNoDiskSpill(flowCtx)
-}
-
-// GetWorkMemLimitNoDiskSpill returns the number of bytes determining the amount
-// of RAM available to a single processor or operator. This function should be
-// used instead of GetWorkMemLimit if the processor cannot spill to disk,
-// since ServerConfig.TestingKnobs.ForceDiskSpill is ignored by this function.
-func GetWorkMemLimitNoDiskSpill(flowCtx *FlowCtx) int64 {
 	if flowCtx.Cfg.TestingKnobs.MemoryLimitBytes != 0 {
 		return flowCtx.Cfg.TestingKnobs.MemoryLimitBytes
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/sql/rowexec/joinreader.go b/pkg/sql/rowexec/joinreader.go
index 85b1749587c9..e7265db5b8ff 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/rowexec/joinreader.go
+++ b/pkg/sql/rowexec/joinreader.go
@@ -373,10 +373,21 @@ func newJoinReader(
 		}
 	}
 
+	// We will create a memory monitor with at least 8MiB of memory limit since
+	// the join reader doesn't know how to spill to disk. It is most likely that
+	// if the target limit is below 8MiB, then we're in a test scenario and we
+	// don't want to error out.
+	const minMemoryLimit = 8 << 20
+	memoryLimit := execinfra.GetWorkMemLimit(flowCtx)
+	if memoryLimit < minMemoryLimit {
+		memoryLimit = minMemoryLimit
+	}
+
 	// Initialize memory monitors and bound account for data structures in the joinReader.
-	jr.MemMonitor = execinfra.NewLimitedMonitorNoDiskSpill(
-		flowCtx.EvalCtx.Ctx(), flowCtx.EvalCtx.Mon, flowCtx, "joinreader-mem",
+	jr.MemMonitor = mon.NewMonitorInheritWithLimit(
+		"joinreader-mem" /* name */, memoryLimit, flowCtx.EvalCtx.Mon,
 	)
+	jr.MemMonitor.Start(flowCtx.EvalCtx.Ctx(), flowCtx.EvalCtx.Mon, mon.BoundAccount{})
 	jr.memAcc = jr.MemMonitor.MakeBoundAccount()
 
 	if err := jr.initJoinReaderStrategy(flowCtx, columnTypes, len(columnIDs), rightCols, readerType); err != nil {