diff --git a/templates/tools/dockerfile/java_build_interop.sh.include b/templates/tools/dockerfile/java_build_interop.sh.include
index 9c9cbcec6f8..2aa7440f701 100755
--- a/templates/tools/dockerfile/java_build_interop.sh.include
+++ b/templates/tools/dockerfile/java_build_interop.sh.include
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ cp -r /var/local/jenkins/grpc-java /tmp/grpc-java
 # copy service account keys if available
 cp -r /var/local/jenkins/service_account $HOME || true
 
+export GRADLE_OPTS="-Dorg.gradle.jvmargs='-Xmx1g'"
+
 pushd /tmp/grpc-java
 # make two attempts; downloads can fail. See https://github.com/grpc/grpc/issues/18892
 ./gradlew --no-daemon :grpc-interop-testing:installDist -PskipCodegen=true -PskipAndroid=true || ${'\\'}
diff --git a/tools/dockerfile/interoptest/grpc_interop_java/build_interop.sh b/tools/dockerfile/interoptest/grpc_interop_java/build_interop.sh
index 06f2d12164e..1f5c5609315 100644
--- a/tools/dockerfile/interoptest/grpc_interop_java/build_interop.sh
+++ b/tools/dockerfile/interoptest/grpc_interop_java/build_interop.sh
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ cp -r /var/local/jenkins/grpc-java /tmp/grpc-java
 # copy service account keys if available
 cp -r /var/local/jenkins/service_account $HOME || true
 
+export GRADLE_OPTS="-Dorg.gradle.jvmargs='-Xmx1g'"
+
 pushd /tmp/grpc-java
 # make two attempts; downloads can fail. See https://github.com/grpc/grpc/issues/18892
 ./gradlew --no-daemon :grpc-interop-testing:installDist -PskipCodegen=true -PskipAndroid=true || \