diff --git a/src/dec/webp.c b/src/dec/webp.c
index c9772cd0..823eafe6 100644
--- a/src/dec/webp.c
+++ b/src/dec/webp.c
@@ -311,7 +311,7 @@ void WebPInitCustomIo(VP8Io* const io) {
 }
 
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-// Init/Check decoding parameters
+// Init/Check/Free decoding parameters and buffer
 
 int WebPInitDecParams(const uint8_t* data, uint32_t data_size, int* width,
                       int* height, WebPDecParams* const params) {
@@ -376,6 +376,11 @@ int WebPCheckDecParams(const VP8Io* io, const WebPDecParams* params,
   return ok;
 }
 
+void WebPClearDecParams(WebPDecParams* params) {
+  free(params->output);
+  memset(params, 0, sizeof(*params));
+}
+
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // "Into" variants
 
@@ -510,11 +515,14 @@ static uint8_t* Decode(WEBP_CSP_MODE mode, const uint8_t* data,
   if (!WebPInitDecParams(data, data_size, width, height, &params)) {
     return NULL;
   }
-  if (params_out) *params_out = params;
 
   size = params.stride * (*height);
   uv_size = params.u_stride * ((*height + 1) / 2);
-  return DecodeInto(mode, data, data_size, &params, size, uv_size, uv_size);
+  if (!DecodeInto(mode, data, data_size, &params, size, uv_size, uv_size)) {
+    WebPClearDecParams(&params);
+  }
+  if (params_out) *params_out = params;
+  return params.output;
 }
 
 uint8_t* WebPDecodeRGB(const uint8_t* data, uint32_t data_size,
diff --git a/src/dec/webpi.h b/src/dec/webpi.h
index edb4887d..9d53de47 100644
--- a/src/dec/webpi.h
+++ b/src/dec/webpi.h
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ int WebPInitDecParams(const uint8_t* data, uint32_t data_size, int* width,
 int WebPCheckDecParams(const VP8Io* io, const WebPDecParams* params,
                        int output_size, int output_u_size, int output_v_size);
 
+// Deallocate memory allocated by WebPInitDecParams() and reset the
+// WebPDecParams object.
+void WebPClearDecParams(WebPDecParams* params);
+
 #if defined(__cplusplus) || defined(c_plusplus)
 }    // extern "C"
 #endif