diff --git a/pkg/specgenutil/specgen.go b/pkg/specgenutil/specgen.go
index 6a6397257b..8007e5d8e4 100644
--- a/pkg/specgenutil/specgen.go
+++ b/pkg/specgenutil/specgen.go
@@ -133,12 +133,14 @@ func getMemoryLimits(s *specgen.SpecGenerator, c *entities.ContainerCreateOption
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, "invalid value for memory")
 		}
-		memory.Limit = &ml
-		if c.MemorySwap == "" {
-			limit := 2 * ml
-			memory.Swap = &(limit)
+		if ml > 0 {
+			memory.Limit = &ml
+			if c.MemorySwap == "" {
+				limit := 2 * ml
+				memory.Swap = &(limit)
+			}
+			hasLimits = true
 		}
-		hasLimits = true
 	}
 	if m := c.MemoryReservation; len(m) > 0 {
 		mr, err := units.RAMInBytes(m)
diff --git a/test/system/030-run.bats b/test/system/030-run.bats
index 8640d427a3..2900540de7 100644
--- a/test/system/030-run.bats
+++ b/test/system/030-run.bats
@@ -67,6 +67,11 @@ echo $rand        |   0 | $rand
     is "$output" ".*invalidflag" "failed when passing undefined flags to the runtime"
 }
 
+@test "podman run --memory=0 runtime option" {
+    run_podman run --memory=0 --rm $IMAGE echo hello
+    is "$output" "hello" "failed to run when --memory is set to 0"
+}
+
 # 'run --preserve-fds' passes a number of additional file descriptors into the container
 @test "podman run --preserve-fds" {
     skip_if_remote "preserve-fds is meaningless over remote"