diff --git a/config.def.h b/config.def.h
index 107c6ac..6e4b942 100644
--- a/config.def.h
+++ b/config.def.h
@@ -62,11 +62,14 @@ static const bool ANTI_ALIAS = true;
  */
 static const bool ALPHA_LAYER = false;
 
-/* cache size for imlib2, in bytes. For backwards compatibility reasons, the
- * size is kept at 4MiB. For most users, it is advised to pick a value close to
- * or above 128MiB for better image (re)loading performance.
+/* percentage of memory to use for imlib2's cache size.
+ *   3 means use 3% of total memory which is about 245MiB on 8GiB machine.
+ *   0 or less means disable cache.
+ * 100 means use all available memory (but not above CACHE_SIZE_LIMIT).
  */
-static const int CACHE_SIZE = 4 * 1024 * 1024; /* 4MiB */
+static const int CACHE_SIZE_MEM_PERCENTAGE = 3;          /* use 3% of total memory for cache */
+static const int CACHE_SIZE_LIMIT = 256 * 1024 * 1024;   /* but not above 256MiB */
+static const int CACHE_SIZE_FALLBACK = 32 * 1024 * 1024; /* fallback to 32MiB if we can't determine total memory */
 
 #endif
 #ifdef _THUMBS_CONFIG
diff --git a/image.c b/image.c
index 2cec163..800321a 100644
--- a/image.c
+++ b/image.c
@@ -46,12 +46,30 @@ enum { DEF_WEBP_DELAY = 75 };
 #define ZOOM_MIN (zoom_levels[0] / 100)
 #define ZOOM_MAX (zoom_levels[ARRLEN(zoom_levels)-1] / 100)
 
+static int calc_cache_size(void)
+{
+	int cache;
+	long pages, page_size;
+
+	if (CACHE_SIZE_MEM_PERCENTAGE <= 0)
+		return 0;
+
+	pages = sysconf(_SC_PHYS_PAGES);
+	page_size = sysconf(_SC_PAGE_SIZE);
+	if (pages < 0 || page_size < 0)
+		return CACHE_SIZE_FALLBACK;
+	cache = (pages/100) * CACHE_SIZE_MEM_PERCENTAGE;
+	cache *= page_size;
+
+	return MIN(cache, CACHE_SIZE_LIMIT);
+}
+
 void img_init(img_t *img, win_t *win)
 {
 	imlib_context_set_display(win->env.dpy);
 	imlib_context_set_visual(win->env.vis);
 	imlib_context_set_colormap(win->env.cmap);
-	imlib_set_cache_size(CACHE_SIZE);
+	imlib_set_cache_size(calc_cache_size());
 
 	img->im = NULL;
 	img->win = win;