diff --git a/doc/api/child_process.md b/doc/api/child_process.md
index df0ba49dbd7c60..fd0cedd6bd7e7e 100644
--- a/doc/api/child_process.md
+++ b/doc/api/child_process.md
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ added: v0.1.90
      command line parsing should be compatible with `cmd.exe`.)
   * `timeout` {number} (Default: `0`)
   * `maxBuffer` {number} Largest amount of data in bytes allowed on stdout or
-    stderr. (Default: `200*1024`) If exceeded, the child process is terminated.
+    stderr. (Default: `1024*1024`) If exceeded, the child process is terminated.
     See caveat at [`maxBuffer` and Unicode][].
   * `killSignal` {string|integer} (Default: `'SIGTERM'`)
   * `uid` {number} Sets the user identity of the process. (See setuid(2).)
diff --git a/lib/child_process.js b/lib/child_process.js
index c2811109b7bbee..b5943a0706076e 100644
--- a/lib/child_process.js
+++ b/lib/child_process.js
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ exports.execFile = function(file /*, args, options, callback*/) {
   var options = {
     encoding: 'utf8',
     timeout: 0,
-    maxBuffer: 200 * 1024,
+    maxBuffer: 1024 * 1024,
     killSignal: 'SIGTERM',
     cwd: null,
     env: null,