diff --git a/lib/platform/github/gh-got-wrapper.js b/lib/platform/github/gh-got-wrapper.js
index ab5c25ba5d51b718eb88e5afe8a5b982106528b4..1628ddc0de7e7b70209e1468e9a1fd25b960af1d 100644
--- a/lib/platform/github/gh-got-wrapper.js
+++ b/lib/platform/github/gh-got-wrapper.js
@@ -95,6 +95,12 @@ async function get(path, opts, retries = 5) {
     ) {
       logger.info({ err }, 'Rate limit exceeded');
       throw new Error('rate-limit-exceeded');
+    } else if (
+      err.statusCode === 403 &&
+      err.message &&
+      err.message.includes('blobs up to 1 MB in size')
+    ) {
+      throw err;
     } else if (err.statusCode === 403) {
       if (retries > 0) {
         logger.info(
diff --git a/test/platform/github/__snapshots__/gh-got-wrapper.spec.js.snap b/test/platform/github/__snapshots__/gh-got-wrapper.spec.js.snap
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0751c2e7956ec95a1a20e01624f76c86b9111649
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/platform/github/__snapshots__/gh-got-wrapper.spec.js.snap
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+// Jest Snapshot v1, https://goo.gl/fbAQLP
+
+exports[`platform/gh-got-wrapper should throw for blob size 1`] = `
+Object {
+  "message": "This API returns blobs up to 1 MB in size. The requested blob is too large to fetch via the API, but you can use the Git Data API to request blobs up to 100 MB in size. (403)",
+  "statusCode": 403,
+}
+`;
diff --git a/test/platform/github/gh-got-wrapper.spec.js b/test/platform/github/gh-got-wrapper.spec.js
index aeb417df3474a1740965de4860985925e70d4054..44280b5a3cbece636634757376d117371ce27a77 100644
--- a/test/platform/github/gh-got-wrapper.spec.js
+++ b/test/platform/github/gh-got-wrapper.spec.js
@@ -90,6 +90,23 @@ describe('platform/gh-got-wrapper', () => {
     expect(e).toBeDefined();
     expect(e.message).toEqual('bad-credentials');
   });
+  it('should throw for blob size', async () => {
+    ghGot.mockImplementationOnce(() =>
+      Promise.reject({
+        statusCode: 403,
+        message:
+          'This API returns blobs up to 1 MB in size. The requested blob is too large to fetch via the API, but you can use the Git Data API to request blobs up to 100 MB in size. (403)',
+      })
+    );
+    let e;
+    try {
+      await get('some-url');
+    } catch (err) {
+      e = err;
+    }
+    expect(e).toBeDefined();
+    expect(e).toMatchSnapshot();
+  });
   it('should retry 502s', async () => {
     ghGot.mockImplementationOnce(() =>
       Promise.reject({