diff --git a/monitor.c b/monitor.c
index 53a4674d9..c0dc48ea0 100644
--- a/monitor.c
+++ b/monitor.c
@@ -2083,8 +2083,7 @@ static void do_balloon(Monitor *mon, const QDict *qdict, QObject **ret_data)
 {
     if (balloon_get_value()) {
         /* ballooning is active */
-        ram_addr_t value = qdict_get_int(qdict, "value");
-        qemu_balloon(value << 20);
+        qemu_balloon(qdict_get_int(qdict, "value"));
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/qemu-monitor.hx b/qemu-monitor.hx
index 338e30e7d..aac0f3e51 100644
--- a/qemu-monitor.hx
+++ b/qemu-monitor.hx
@@ -887,7 +887,7 @@ ETEXI
 
     {
         .name       = "balloon",
-        .args_type  = "value:i",
+        .args_type  = "value:M",
         .params     = "target",
         .help       = "request VM to change it's memory allocation (in MB)",
         .user_print = monitor_user_noop,