diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c b/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
index 1aa2ed096f65..4f0bbffee05f 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 #include <api/fs/tracing_path.h>
 #include <bpf/bpf.h>
 #include "util/bpf_map.h"
+#include "util/rlimit.h"
 #include "builtin.h"
 #include "util/cgroup.h"
 #include "util/color.h"
@@ -3864,6 +3865,15 @@ int cmd_trace(int argc, const char **argv)
 		goto out;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * Parsing .perfconfig may entail creating a BPF event, that may need
+	 * to create BPF maps, so bump RLIM_MEMLOCK as the default 64K setting
+	 * is too small. This affects just this process, not touching the
+	 * global setting. If it fails we'll get something in 'perf trace -v'
+	 * to help diagnose the problem.
+	 */
+	rlimit__bump_memlock();
+
 	err = perf_config(trace__config, &trace);
 	if (err)
 		goto out;