diff --git a/src/row.ts b/src/row.ts
index 3a93424e6..804e57361 100644
--- a/src/row.ts
+++ b/src/row.ts
@@ -555,7 +555,24 @@ export class Row {
       typeof optionsOrCallback === 'object' ? optionsOrCallback : {};
     const callback =
       typeof optionsOrCallback === 'function' ? optionsOrCallback : cb!;
-    this.getMetadata(gaxOptions as GetRowOptions, err => {
+    const options = Object.assign(
+      {
+        filter: [
+          {
+            row: {
+              cellLimit: 1,
+            },
+          },
+          {
+            value: {
+              strip: true,
+            },
+          },
+        ],
+      },
+      gaxOptions
+    );
+    this.getMetadata(options as GetRowOptions, err => {
       if (err) {
         if (err instanceof RowError) {
           callback(null, false);
diff --git a/test/row.ts b/test/row.ts
index 345adfe84..8daa87650 100644
--- a/test/row.ts
+++ b/test/row.ts
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import {Mutation} from '../src/mutation.js';
 import * as rw from '../src/row';
 import {Table, Entry} from '../src/table.js';
 import {Chunk} from '../src/chunktransformer.js';
+import {CallOptions} from 'google-gax';
 
 const sandbox = sinon.createSandbox();
 
@@ -766,18 +767,62 @@ describe('Bigtable/Row', () => {
   describe('exists', () => {
     it('should not require gaxOptions', done => {
       sandbox.stub(row, 'getMetadata').callsFake(gaxOptions => {
-        assert.deepStrictEqual(gaxOptions, {});
+        assert.deepStrictEqual(gaxOptions, {
+          filter: [
+            {
+              row: {
+                cellLimit: 1,
+              },
+            },
+            {
+              value: {
+                strip: true,
+              },
+            },
+          ],
+        });
         done();
       });
       row.exists(assert.ifError);
     });
 
-    it('should pass gaxOptions to getMetadata', done => {
+    it('should add filter to the read row options', done => {
       const gaxOptions = {};
       sandbox.stub(row, 'getMetadata').callsFake(gaxOptions_ => {
-        assert.strictEqual(gaxOptions_, gaxOptions);
+        assert.deepStrictEqual(gaxOptions_, {
+          filter: [
+            {
+              row: {
+                cellLimit: 1,
+              },
+            },
+            {
+              value: {
+                strip: true,
+              },
+            },
+          ],
+        });
+        done();
+      });
+      row.exists(gaxOptions, assert.ifError);
+    });
+
+    it('should pass gaxOptions to getMetadata', done => {
+      const gaxOptions = {
+        testProperty: true,
+      } as CallOptions;
+
+      sandbox.stub(row, 'getMetadata').callsFake(gaxOptions_ => {
+        assert.strictEqual(
+          // tslint:disable-next-line no-any
+          (gaxOptions_ as any).testProperty,
+          // tslint:disable-next-line no-any
+          (gaxOptions as any).testProperty
+        );
         done();
       });
+
       row.exists(gaxOptions, assert.ifError);
     });