diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c4d9786..9915ff9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ The following options are possible:
 * **port**(optional, defaults to 80) the port on the target container
 * **ip**(optional, defaults to listen on all IPs) the IP on which the proxy should listen.
 * **location**(optional) if the proxied web application is not running on the /-path
+* **body_size**(optional, defaults to 1MB) the allowed maximal body size as defined in http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_core_module.html#client_max_body_size
 
 ## Starting the container
 
diff --git a/nginx_proxy.py b/nginx_proxy.py
index 0286ef5..5c95ca3 100755
--- a/nginx_proxy.py
+++ b/nginx_proxy.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ server {
     listen $listen;
     server_name $names;
     location / {
-        client_max_body_size 100m;
+        client_max_body_size $body_size;
         client_body_timeout 300s;
         proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $$remote_addr;
         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $$remote_addr;
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ server {
         return 301 $$scheme://$name/$location;
     }
     location /$location {
-        client_max_body_size 100m;
+        client_max_body_size $body_size;
         client_body_timeout 300s;
         proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $$remote_addr;
         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $$remote_addr;
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ def handle_container(id):
             'location': get_if_available(proxy_data, 'location', ''),
             'names': get_if_available(proxy_data, 'server_names', '').replace(';', ' '),
             'port': get_if_available(proxy_data, 'port', 80),
+            'body_size': get_if_available(proxy_data, 'body_size', '1m'),
             'listen': '*:80'
         }
         logging.info('writing to %sproxy_%s', target_path, id)