diff --git a/Sources/NIOCore/ByteBuffer-core.swift b/Sources/NIOCore/ByteBuffer-core.swift
index 812a8cc386..514f43d160 100644
--- a/Sources/NIOCore/ByteBuffer-core.swift
+++ b/Sources/NIOCore/ByteBuffer-core.swift
@@ -299,6 +299,19 @@ public struct ByteBuffer {
             _ByteBufferSlice(0..<self.capacity)
         }
 
+        /// Returns the size that this storage would allocate for a given buffer capacity.
+        ///
+        /// On Darwin, use `malloc_good_size` to get optimal size (capacity rounded up, but hopefully not allocating extra memory pages).
+        /// On other platforms, use the next power of 2 clamped to `UInt32.max`.
+        @inlinable
+        static func mallocSize(capacity: _Capacity) -> _Capacity {
+            #if canImport(Darwin)
+            return _Capacity(malloc_good_size(Int(capacity)))
+            #else
+            return capacity.nextPowerOf2ClampedToMax()
+            #endif
+        }
+
         @inlinable
         static func _allocateAndPrepareRawMemory(bytes: _Capacity, allocator: Allocator) -> UnsafeMutableRawPointer {
             let ptr = allocator.malloc(size_t(bytes))!
@@ -314,7 +327,7 @@ public struct ByteBuffer {
 
         @inlinable
         func allocateStorage(capacity: _Capacity) -> _Storage {
-            let newCapacity = capacity == 0 ? 0 : capacity.nextPowerOf2ClampedToMax()
+            let newCapacity = capacity == 0 ? 0 : _Storage.mallocSize(capacity: capacity)
             return _Storage(
                 bytesNoCopy: _Storage._allocateAndPrepareRawMemory(bytes: newCapacity, allocator: self.allocator),
                 capacity: newCapacity,
@@ -332,7 +345,7 @@ public struct ByteBuffer {
 
         @inlinable
         func reallocStorage(capacity minimumNeededCapacity: _Capacity) {
-            let newCapacity = minimumNeededCapacity.nextPowerOf2ClampedToMax()
+            let newCapacity = _Storage.mallocSize(capacity: minimumNeededCapacity)
             let ptr = self.allocator.realloc(self.bytes, size_t(newCapacity))!
             // bind the memory so we can assume it elsewhere to be bound to UInt8
             ptr.bindMemory(to: UInt8.self, capacity: Int(newCapacity))
@@ -346,7 +359,7 @@ public struct ByteBuffer {
 
         @inlinable
         static func reallocated(minimumCapacity: _Capacity, allocator: Allocator) -> _Storage {
-            let newCapacity = minimumCapacity == 0 ? 0 : minimumCapacity.nextPowerOf2ClampedToMax()
+            let newCapacity = minimumCapacity == 0 ? 0 : _Storage.mallocSize(capacity: minimumCapacity)
             // TODO: Use realloc if possible
             return _Storage(
                 bytesNoCopy: _Storage._allocateAndPrepareRawMemory(bytes: newCapacity, allocator: allocator),
diff --git a/Tests/NIOCoreTests/ByteBufferStorageMallocTest.swift b/Tests/NIOCoreTests/ByteBufferStorageMallocTest.swift
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e07e2637b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/NIOCoreTests/ByteBufferStorageMallocTest.swift
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+//===----------------------------------------------------------------------===//
+//
+// This source file is part of the SwiftNIO open source project
+//
+// Copyright (c) 2025 Apple Inc. and the SwiftNIO project authors
+// Licensed under Apache License v2.0
+//
+// See LICENSE.txt for license information
+// See CONTRIBUTORS.txt for the list of SwiftNIO project authors
+//
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+//
+//===----------------------------------------------------------------------===//
+
+import XCTest
+
+@testable import NIOCore
+
+/// Returns the malloc size that we expect to be allocated for a given requested capacity size.
+/// On Darwin, we want to use `malloc_good_size` to get the optimal size, but on all other platforms
+/// we use the next power of 2, clamped.
+private func expectedMallocSize(_ size: Int) -> Int {
+    #if canImport(Darwin)
+    return Darwin.malloc_good_size(size)
+    #else
+    return UInt32(size).nextPowerOf2ClampedToMax()
+    #endif
+}
+
+// Tests that ByteBuffer allocates memory in an optimal way depending on the host platform.
+
+final class ByteBufferStorageMallocTest: XCTestCase {
+
+    func testInitialAllocationUsesGoodSize() {
+        let allocator = ByteBufferAllocator()
+        let requestedCapacity = 1000
+        let expectedCapacity = expectedMallocSize(requestedCapacity)
+
+        let buffer = allocator.buffer(capacity: requestedCapacity)
+        XCTAssertEqual(Int(buffer._storage.capacity), expectedCapacity)
+    }
+
+    func testReallocationUsesGoodSize() {
+        let allocator = ByteBufferAllocator()
+        var buffer = allocator.buffer(capacity: 16)
+        let initialCapacity = buffer.capacity
+
+        // Write more bytes than the current capacity to trigger reallocation
+        let newSize = initialCapacity + 100
+        let expectedCapacity = expectedMallocSize(Int(newSize))
+
+        // This will trigger reallocation
+        buffer.writeBytes(Array(repeating: UInt8(0), count: Int(newSize)))
+
+        XCTAssertEqual(Int(buffer._storage.capacity), expectedCapacity)
+    }
+
+    func testZeroCapacity() {
+        let allocator = ByteBufferAllocator()
+        let buffer = allocator.buffer(capacity: 0)
+        XCTAssertEqual(buffer.capacity, 0)
+    }
+
+}