diff --git a/src/cmdline.rs b/src/cmdline.rs
index e2cadc9..342ac00 100644
--- a/src/cmdline.rs
+++ b/src/cmdline.rs
@@ -20,8 +20,9 @@ pub struct Args {
     #[arg(long, short)]
     pub cpus: u8,
 
-    /// Amount of RAM available to VM, in MiB.
-    #[arg(long, short)]
+    /// Amount of RAM for the VM. Optionally specify a unit suffix: M (MiB, default), G (GiB),
+    /// T (TiB), P (PiB). Examples: 2048, 2048M, 2G.
+    #[arg(long, short, value_parser = parse_memory)]
     pub memory: u32,
 
     /// Bootloader configuration.
@@ -76,6 +77,42 @@ fn parse_timesync(s: &str) -> Result<u32, String> {
         .map_err(|e| format!("invalid timesync port: {e}"))
 }
 
+/// Parse a memory size string with an optional unit suffix into MiB.
+///
+/// Supported suffixes (powers of 1024): M (MiB, default), G (GiB), T (TiB), P (PiB).
+/// Case-insensitive. With no suffix, the value is treated as MiB.
+pub fn parse_memory(s: &str) -> Result<u32, String> {
+    let (num_str, unit) = if s.ends_with(|c: char| c.is_ascii_alphabetic()) {
+        s.split_at(s.len() - 1)
+    } else {
+        (s, "M")
+    };
+
+    let n: u64 = num_str
+        .parse()
+        .map_err(|_| format!("invalid memory value: '{s}'"))?;
+
+    let mib: u64 = match unit.to_uppercase().as_str() {
+        "M" => n,
+        "G" => n
+            .checked_mul(1024)
+            .ok_or_else(|| format!("memory value '{s}' is too large"))?,
+        "T" => n
+            .checked_mul(1024 * 1024)
+            .ok_or_else(|| format!("memory value '{s}' is too large"))?,
+        "P" => n
+            .checked_mul(1024 * 1024 * 1024)
+            .ok_or_else(|| format!("memory value '{s}' is too large"))?,
+        _ => {
+            return Err(format!(
+                "unknown memory suffix '{unit}', valid suffixes are MGTP"
+            ))
+        }
+    };
+
+    u32::try_from(mib).map_err(|_| format!("memory value '{s}' is too large"))
+}
+
 /// Parse the input string into a hash map of key value pairs, associating the argument with its
 /// respective value.
 pub fn parse_args(s: String) -> Result<HashMap<String, String>, anyhow::Error> {
@@ -250,6 +287,34 @@ mod bootloader {
 }
 
 mod tests {
+    #[test]
+    fn memory_parse_no_suffix() {
+        assert_eq!(super::parse_memory("512"), Ok(512));
+        assert_eq!(super::parse_memory("2048"), Ok(2048));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn memory_parse_mib() {
+        assert_eq!(super::parse_memory("512M"), Ok(512));
+        assert_eq!(super::parse_memory("512m"), Ok(512));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn memory_parse_gib() {
+        assert_eq!(super::parse_memory("2G"), Ok(2048));
+        assert_eq!(super::parse_memory("2g"), Ok(2048));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn memory_parse_invalid() {
+        assert!(super::parse_memory("abc").is_err());
+        assert!(super::parse_memory("1Z").is_err());
+        assert!(super::parse_memory("1K").is_err());
+        assert!(super::parse_memory("1B").is_err());
+        assert!(super::parse_memory("1E").is_err());
+        assert!(super::parse_memory("").is_err());
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn virtio_blk_argument_ordering() {
         let in_order =