diff --git a/libguile/bytevectors.c b/libguile/bytevectors.c
index 95fcae5b1..50812d3bc 100644
--- a/libguile/bytevectors.c
+++ b/libguile/bytevectors.c
@@ -258,8 +258,7 @@ make_bytevector_from_buffer (size_t len, void *contents,
   size_t bytes_per_elt = scm_i_array_element_type_sizes[element_type]/8;
   size_t c_len = len * bytes_per_elt;
   struct scm_bytevector *bv =
-    scm_gc_malloc (sizeof (struct scm_bytevector) + c_len,
-                   "bytevector");
+    scm_gc_malloc (sizeof (struct scm_bytevector), "bytevector");
 
   scm_t_bits flags = is_immutable ? SCM_F_BYTEVECTOR_IMMUTABLE : 0;
   bv->tag_flags_and_element_type = make_bytevector_tag (flags, element_type);