diff --git a/server/handler.go b/server/handler.go
index 14b40582d8..cc344b3ff0 100644
--- a/server/handler.go
+++ b/server/handler.go
@@ -920,6 +920,9 @@ func (h *Handler) resultForValueRowIter(ctx *sql.Context, c *mysql.Conn, schema
 					return sqlErr
 				}
 
+				// TODO: hope it's safe to release here
+				sql.ValueRowPoolManager.Put(row)
+
 				ctx.GetLogger().Tracef("spooling result row %s", outRow)
 				res.Rows[res.RowsAffected] = outRow
 				res.RowsAffected++
diff --git a/sql/plan/filter.go b/sql/plan/filter.go
index 4e78b50500..b0e514415c 100644
--- a/sql/plan/filter.go
+++ b/sql/plan/filter.go
@@ -150,6 +150,7 @@ func (i *FilterIter) NextValueRow(ctx *sql.Context) (sql.ValueRow, error) {
 		if res.Val[0] == 1 {
 			return row, nil
 		}
+		sql.ValueRowPoolManager.Put(row)
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/sql/value_row.go b/sql/value_row.go
index f9140c41c5..ed0f9e8853 100644
--- a/sql/value_row.go
+++ b/sql/value_row.go
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import (
 )
 
 const (
+	valueRowSize = 48 // TODO: adjust
 	valueArrSize = 64
 	fieldArrSize = 2048
 )
@@ -52,6 +53,32 @@ func (v Value) IsNull() bool {
 	return (v.Val == nil && v.WrappedVal == nil) || v.Typ == query.Type_NULL_TYPE
 }
 
+var valueRowPool = sync.Pool{
+	New: func() interface{} {
+		return make(ValueRow, 0, valueRowSize)
+	},
+}
+
+type valueRowPoolManager struct{}
+
+func (valueRowPoolManager) Get(n int) ValueRow {
+	if n > valueRowSize {
+		return make(ValueRow, n)
+	}
+	res := valueRowPool.Get().(ValueRow)
+	return res[:n]
+}
+
+func (valueRowPoolManager) Put(val ValueRow) {
+	if len(val) > valueRowSize {
+		return
+	}
+	val = val[:0] // TODO: might need more work to properly reset
+	valueRowPool.Put(val)
+}
+
+var ValueRowPoolManager = valueRowPoolManager{}
+
 type RowFrame struct {
 	Types []query.Type