diff --git a/src/decode.c b/src/decode.c
index 0dd9fa86fa..4be4b9e702 100644
--- a/src/decode.c
+++ b/src/decode.c
@@ -403,6 +403,7 @@ void DecodeRegisterPerfCounters(DecodeThreadVars *dtv, ThreadVars *tv)
     dtv->counter_avg_pkt_size = StatsRegisterAvgCounter("decoder.avg_pkt_size", tv);
     dtv->counter_max_pkt_size = StatsRegisterMaxCounter("decoder.max_pkt_size", tv);
     dtv->counter_erspan = StatsRegisterMaxCounter("decoder.erspan", tv);
+    dtv->counter_flow_memcap = StatsRegisterCounter("flow.memcap", tv);
 
     dtv->counter_defrag_ipv4_fragments =
         StatsRegisterCounter("defrag.ipv4.fragments", tv);
diff --git a/src/decode.h b/src/decode.h
index 2f322a02fe..f57dcea997 100644
--- a/src/decode.h
+++ b/src/decode.h
@@ -624,6 +624,8 @@ typedef struct DecodeThreadVars_
     uint16_t counter_defrag_ipv6_timeouts;
     uint16_t counter_defrag_max_hit;
 
+    uint16_t counter_flow_memcap;
+
     /* thread data for flow logging api: only used at forced
      * flow recycle during lookups */
     void *output_flow_thread_data;
diff --git a/src/flow-hash.c b/src/flow-hash.c
index b8de40e77f..9ddb3713c4 100644
--- a/src/flow-hash.c
+++ b/src/flow-hash.c
@@ -486,6 +486,11 @@ static Flow *FlowGetNew(ThreadVars *tv, DecodeThreadVars *dtv, const Packet *p)
 
             f = FlowGetUsedFlow(tv, dtv);
             if (f == NULL) {
+                /* max memcap reached, so increments the counter */
+                if (tv != NULL && dtv != NULL) {
+                    StatsIncr(tv, dtv->counter_flow_memcap);
+                }
+
                 /* very rare, but we can fail. Just giving up */
                 return NULL;
             }
@@ -495,6 +500,9 @@ static Flow *FlowGetNew(ThreadVars *tv, DecodeThreadVars *dtv, const Packet *p)
             /* now see if we can alloc a new flow */
             f = FlowAlloc();
             if (f == NULL) {
+                if (tv != NULL && dtv != NULL) {
+                    StatsIncr(tv, dtv->counter_flow_memcap);
+                }
                 return NULL;
             }