diff --git a/hbase-assembly/src/main/assembly/client-components.xml b/hbase-assembly/src/main/assembly/client-components.xml
index 740e9bc74b3..4bad0d465e2 100644
--- a/hbase-assembly/src/main/assembly/client-components.xml
+++ b/hbase-assembly/src/main/assembly/client-components.xml
@@ -26,6 +26,12 @@
     <fileSet>
       <directory>${project.basedir}/../target/site</directory>
       <outputDirectory>docs</outputDirectory>
+      <!--
+        Don't include dev apidocs. They bloat the tgz by almost 50%.
+        See HBASE-20149, HBASE-24630 -->
+      <excludes>
+        <exclude>**/*devapidocs/**</exclude>
+      </excludes>
     </fileSet>
     <!-- Include top level text files-->
     <fileSet>