diff --git a/test/cli/run/esm-fixture-leak-small.mjs b/test/cli/run/esm-fixture-leak-small.mjs
index 71fb83e6fa07..6f6540985b11 100644
--- a/test/cli/run/esm-fixture-leak-small.mjs
+++ b/test/cli/run/esm-fixture-leak-small.mjs
@@ -9,15 +9,23 @@ const rss =
     ? Bun.unsafe.memoryFootprint
     : process.memoryUsage.rss;
 
+// The JS heap and allocator grow by 5-10 MB over the first couple thousand
+// loads and then hold steady. Taking the baseline after that leaves only
+// per-load growth inside the measured window, which is what lets the window be
+// 40k loads instead of the 100k this fixture used to need (20-27s on the 4 vCPU
+// CI agents, against the test's 30s budget).
+const warmupLoads = 2_000;
+const measuredLoads = 40_000;
+
 if (typeof Bun !== "undefined") Bun.gc(true);
-for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
+for (let i = 0; i < warmupLoads; i++) {
   delete require.cache[dest];
   await import(dest);
 }
 if (typeof Bun !== "undefined") Bun.gc(true);
 const baseline = rss();
 
-for (let i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
+for (let i = 0; i < measuredLoads; i++) {
   delete require.cache[dest];
   await import(dest);
 }
@@ -27,19 +35,10 @@ setTimeout(() => {
   let diff = rss() - baseline;
   diff = (diff / 1024 / 1024) | 0;
   console.log({ leaked: diff + " MB" });
-  // This test seems to be more flaky on slow filesystems.
-  // This used to be 40 MB, but the original version of Bun which this triggered on would reach 120 MB
-  // so we can increase it to 100 and still catch the leak.
-  //
-  // ❯ bunx bun@1.0.0 --smol test/cli/run/esm-fixture-leak-small.mjs
-  // {
-  //   leaked: "100 MB"
-  // }
-  // ❯ bunx bun@1.1.0 --smol test/cli/run/esm-fixture-leak-small.mjs
-  // {
-  //   leaked: "38 MB",
-  // }
-  if (diff >= (isASAN ? 500 : 100)) {
+  // The leak this guards against retained about 1 KB per load (bun 1.0.0
+  // measured 100-120 MB over 100k loads), so 40k loads of it are 40 MB or more.
+  // A non-leaking release build measures 0-7 MB here (20 runs, Linux x64).
+  if (diff >= (isASAN ? 500 : 20)) {
     console.log("\n--fail--\n");
     process.exit(1);
   } else {