diff --git a/activemq-amqp/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/transport/amqp/AmqpFrameParser.java b/activemq-amqp/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/transport/amqp/AmqpFrameParser.java
index 247a5e9e36..06bc97b219 100644
--- a/activemq-amqp/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/transport/amqp/AmqpFrameParser.java
+++ b/activemq-amqp/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/transport/amqp/AmqpFrameParser.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 
 import org.apache.activemq.transport.amqp.AmqpWireFormat.ResetListener;
 import org.apache.activemq.transport.tcp.TcpTransport;
+import org.apache.activemq.util.IOExceptionSupport;
 import org.fusesource.hawtbuf.Buffer;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
@@ -84,7 +85,7 @@ public class AmqpFrameParser {
         }
 
         if (frameSize > maxFrameSize) {
-            throw new IOException("Frame size of " + frameSize + " larger than max allowed " + maxFrameSize);
+            throw IOExceptionSupport.createFrameSizeException(frameSize, maxFrameSize);
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/activemq-client/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/openwire/OpenWireFormat.java b/activemq-client/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/openwire/OpenWireFormat.java
index f70bff840c..c1297a24d1 100755
--- a/activemq-client/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/openwire/OpenWireFormat.java
+++ b/activemq-client/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/openwire/OpenWireFormat.java
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import org.apache.activemq.util.ByteSequence;
 import org.apache.activemq.util.ByteSequenceData;
 import org.apache.activemq.util.DataByteArrayInputStream;
 import org.apache.activemq.util.DataByteArrayOutputStream;
+import org.apache.activemq.util.IOExceptionSupport;
 import org.apache.activemq.wireformat.WireFormat;
 
 /**
@@ -193,7 +194,7 @@ public final class OpenWireFormat implements WireFormat {
             }
 
             if (size > maxFrameSize) {
-                throw new IOException("Frame size of " + (size / (1024 * 1024)) + " MB larger than max allowed " + (maxFrameSize / (1024 * 1024)) + " MB");
+                throw IOExceptionSupport.createFrameSizeException(size, maxFrameSize);
             }
         }
 
@@ -266,7 +267,7 @@ public final class OpenWireFormat implements WireFormat {
         if (!sizePrefixDisabled) {
             int size = dis.readInt();
             if (size > maxFrameSize) {
-                throw new IOException("Frame size of " + (size / (1024 * 1024)) + " MB larger than max allowed " + (maxFrameSize / (1024 * 1024)) + " MB");
+                throw IOExceptionSupport.createFrameSizeException(size, maxFrameSize);
             }
             // int size = dis.readInt();
             // byte[] data = new byte[size];
diff --git a/activemq-client/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/util/IOExceptionSupport.java b/activemq-client/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/util/IOExceptionSupport.java
index ed0925f05d..7aa2fc47b8 100755
--- a/activemq-client/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/util/IOExceptionSupport.java
+++ b/activemq-client/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/util/IOExceptionSupport.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 package org.apache.activemq.util;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.math.BigInteger;
 
 public final class IOExceptionSupport {
 
@@ -47,4 +48,36 @@ public final class IOExceptionSupport {
         return exception;
     }
 
+    public static IOException createFrameSizeException(int size, long maxSize) {
+        return new IOException("Frame size of " + toHumanReadableSizeString(size) +
+            " larger than max allowed " + toHumanReadableSizeString(maxSize));
+    }
+
+    private static String toHumanReadableSizeString(final int size) {
+        return toHumanReadableSizeString(BigInteger.valueOf(size));
+    }
+
+    private static String toHumanReadableSizeString(final long size) {
+        return toHumanReadableSizeString(BigInteger.valueOf(size));
+    }
+
+    private static String toHumanReadableSizeString(final BigInteger size) {
+        String displaySize;
+
+        final BigInteger ONE_KB_BI = BigInteger.valueOf(1024);
+        final BigInteger ONE_MB_BI = ONE_KB_BI.multiply(ONE_KB_BI);
+        final BigInteger ONE_GB_BI = ONE_KB_BI.multiply(ONE_MB_BI);
+
+        if (size.divide(ONE_GB_BI).compareTo(BigInteger.ZERO) > 0) {
+            displaySize = String.valueOf(size.divide(ONE_GB_BI)) + " GB";
+        } else if (size.divide(ONE_MB_BI).compareTo(BigInteger.ZERO) > 0) {
+            displaySize = String.valueOf(size.divide(ONE_MB_BI)) + " MB";
+        } else if (size.divide(ONE_KB_BI).compareTo(BigInteger.ZERO) > 0) {
+            displaySize = String.valueOf(size.divide(ONE_KB_BI)) + " KB";
+        } else {
+            displaySize = String.valueOf(size) + " bytes";
+        }
+
+        return displaySize;
+    }
 }