diff --git a/test-framework/maven/src/main/java/io/quarkus/maven/it/RunAndCheckMojoTestBase.java b/test-framework/maven/src/main/java/io/quarkus/maven/it/RunAndCheckMojoTestBase.java
index 5ea0c98be1315..810d934b13852 100644
--- a/test-framework/maven/src/main/java/io/quarkus/maven/it/RunAndCheckMojoTestBase.java
+++ b/test-framework/maven/src/main/java/io/quarkus/maven/it/RunAndCheckMojoTestBase.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ public class RunAndCheckMojoTestBase extends MojoTestBase {
     protected File testDir;
     protected DevModeClient devModeClient = new DevModeClient(getPort());
     private static final int DEFAULT_PORT = 8080;
+    private static final int DEFAULT_MEMORY_IN_MB = 128;
 
     /**
      * Default to port 8080, but allow subtests to override.
@@ -33,6 +34,14 @@ protected int getPort() {
         return DEFAULT_PORT;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Default to quite constrained memory, but allow subclasses to override, for hungrier tests.
+     */
+
+    protected int getAllowedHeapInMb() {
+        return DEFAULT_MEMORY_IN_MB;
+    }
+
     @AfterEach
     public void cleanup() {
         shutdownTheApp();
@@ -101,7 +110,7 @@ protected void run(boolean performCompile, LaunchMode mode, boolean skipAnalytic
         //running at once, if they add default to 75% of total mem we can easily run out
         //of physical memory as they will consume way more than what they need instead of
         //just running GC
-        args.add("-Djvm.args=-Xmx128m");
+        args.add("-Djvm.args=-Xmx" + getAllowedHeapInMb() + "m");
         running.execute(args, Map.of());
     }