diff --git a/lualib/resty/events/init.lua b/lualib/resty/events/init.lua
index bdab4729..8fc9a27e 100644
--- a/lualib/resty/events/init.lua
+++ b/lualib/resty/events/init.lua
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ local function check_options(opts)
     local UNIX_PREFIX = "unix:"
     local DEFAULT_UNIQUE_TIMEOUT = 5
     local DEFAULT_MAX_QUEUE_LEN = 1024 * 10
+    local DEFAULT_MAX_PAYLOAD_LEN = 1024 * 64   -- 64KB
 
     opts.broker_id = opts.broker_id or 0
 
@@ -66,6 +67,16 @@ local function check_options(opts)
         return nil, '"max_queue_len" option is invalid'
     end
 
+    opts.max_payload_len = opts.max_payload_len or DEFAULT_MAX_PAYLOAD_LEN
+
+    if type(opts.max_payload_len) ~= "number" then
+        return nil, '"max_payload_len" option must be a number'
+    end
+
+    if opts.max_payload_len < 0 then
+        return nil, '"max_payload_len" option is invalid'
+    end
+
     opts.testing = opts.testing or false
 
     if type(opts.testing) ~= "boolean" then
diff --git a/lualib/resty/events/worker.lua b/lualib/resty/events/worker.lua
index a0311f4a..1b16cba3 100644
--- a/lualib/resty/events/worker.lua
+++ b/lualib/resty/events/worker.lua
@@ -279,7 +279,7 @@ end
 
 -- posts a new event
 local function post_event(self, source, event, data, spec)
-    local str, ok, err
+    local str, ok, len, err
 
     EVENT_T.source = source
     EVENT_T.event = event
@@ -303,10 +303,14 @@ local function post_event(self, source, event, data, spec)
         return nil, err
     end
 
-    ok, err = frame_validate(str)
-    if not ok then
+    len, err = frame_validate(str)
+    if not len then
         return nil, err
     end
+    if len > self._opts.max_payload_len then
+        return nil, "payload exceeds the limitation " ..
+                    "(" .. self._opts.max_payload_len .. ")"
+    end
 
     ok, err = self._pub_queue:push(str)
     if not ok then
diff --git a/t/events.t b/t/events.t
index 3a861db6..1175b495 100644
--- a/t/events.t
+++ b/t/events.t
@@ -391,6 +391,7 @@ optional "unique_timeout" option must be a number
         local opts = {
             --broker_id = 0,
             listening = "unix:$TEST_NGINX_HTML_DIR/nginx.sock",
+            max_payload_len = 1024 * 1024 * 2,
         }
 
         local ev = require("resty.events").new(opts)