diff --git a/grep.c b/grep.c
index cd952ef5d3..db6e0d895f 100644
--- a/grep.c
+++ b/grep.c
@@ -150,12 +150,20 @@ int grep_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
  * Initialize one instance of grep_opt and copy the
  * default values from the template we read the configuration
  * information in an earlier call to git_config(grep_config).
+ *
+ * If using PCRE, make sure that the library is configured
+ * to use the same allocator as Git (e.g. nedmalloc on Windows).
  */
 void grep_init(struct grep_opt *opt, struct repository *repo, const char *prefix)
 {
 	struct grep_opt *def = &grep_defaults;
 	int i;
 
+#ifdef USE_LIBPCRE1
+	pcre_malloc = malloc;
+	pcre_free = free;
+#endif
+
 	memset(opt, 0, sizeof(*opt));
 	opt->repo = repo;
 	opt->prefix = prefix;