diff --git a/comfy/sd.py b/comfy/sd.py
index 718dccd0..d898d019 100644
--- a/comfy/sd.py
+++ b/comfy/sd.py
@@ -589,11 +589,14 @@ class VAE:
         self.first_stage_model = self.first_stage_model.to(self.device)
         pixel_samples = pixel_samples.movedim(-1,1)
         try:
-            batch_number = 1
+            free_memory = model_management.get_free_memory(self.device)
+            batch_number = int((free_memory * 0.7) / (2078 * pixel_samples.shape[2] * pixel_samples.shape[3])) #NOTE: this constant along with the one in the decode above are estimated from the mem usage for the VAE and could change.
+            batch_number = max(1, batch_number)
             samples = torch.empty((pixel_samples.shape[0], 4, round(pixel_samples.shape[2] // 8), round(pixel_samples.shape[3] // 8)), device="cpu")
             for x in range(0, pixel_samples.shape[0], batch_number):
                 pixels_in = (2. * pixel_samples[x:x+batch_number] - 1.).to(self.device)
                 samples[x:x+batch_number] = self.first_stage_model.encode(pixels_in).sample().cpu() * self.scale_factor
+
         except model_management.OOM_EXCEPTION as e:
             print("Warning: Ran out of memory when regular VAE encoding, retrying with tiled VAE encoding.")
             samples = self.encode_tiled_(pixel_samples)