diff --git a/src/conf/numa_conf.c b/src/conf/numa_conf.c
index 7506e21e6fcb7da1ab080275ce5afeaedb63926d..3fb086f4ba5b8f5de6b5cac7e44e7c805637a704 100644
--- a/src/conf/numa_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/numa_conf.c
@@ -777,7 +777,8 @@ virDomainNumaDefCPUFormat(virBufferPtr buf,
         virBufferAddLit(buf, "<cell");
         virBufferAsprintf(buf, " id='%zu'", i);
         virBufferAsprintf(buf, " cpus='%s'", cpustr);
-        virBufferAsprintf(buf, " memory='%llu'", def->cells[i].mem);
+        virBufferAsprintf(buf, " memory='%llu'",
+                          virDomainNumaGetNodeMemorySize(def, i));
         virBufferAddLit(buf, " unit='KiB'");
         if (memAccess)
             virBufferAsprintf(buf, " memAccess='%s'",
@@ -840,3 +841,20 @@ virDomainNumaGetNodeMemoryAccessMode(virCPUDefPtr numa,
 {
     return numa->cells[node].memAccess;
 }
+
+
+unsigned long long
+virDomainNumaGetNodeMemorySize(virCPUDefPtr numa,
+                               size_t node)
+{
+    return numa->cells[node].mem;
+}
+
+
+void
+virDomainNumaSetNodeMemorySize(virCPUDefPtr numa,
+                               size_t node,
+                               unsigned long long size)
+{
+    numa->cells[node].mem = size;
+}
diff --git a/src/conf/numa_conf.h b/src/conf/numa_conf.h
index 8ebce4982a3e739ec022dcf0b70d67b854f39489..cda850b3d0eaa19226c9f8065d7065a97b63cfa3 100644
--- a/src/conf/numa_conf.h
+++ b/src/conf/numa_conf.h
@@ -94,6 +94,9 @@ virBitmapPtr virDomainNumaGetNodeCpumask(virCPUDefPtr numa,
 virNumaMemAccess virDomainNumaGetNodeMemoryAccessMode(virCPUDefPtr numa,
                                                       size_t node)
     ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(1);
+unsigned long long virDomainNumaGetNodeMemorySize(virCPUDefPtr numa,
+                                                  size_t node)
+    ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(1);
 
 /*
  * Formatters
@@ -117,6 +120,11 @@ int virDomainNumatuneSet(virDomainNumaPtr numa,
                          virBitmapPtr nodeset)
     ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(1);
 
+void virDomainNumaSetNodeMemorySize(virCPUDefPtr numa,
+                                    size_t node,
+                                    unsigned long long size)
+    ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(1);
+
 /*
  * Other accessors
  */
diff --git a/src/libvirt_private.syms b/src/libvirt_private.syms
index ab3a014b55232d2408333043b4f69ce6a25a5bec..3bc3f8768931dcad12992d8460821bab2c4dafae 100644
--- a/src/libvirt_private.syms
+++ b/src/libvirt_private.syms
@@ -632,7 +632,9 @@ virDomainNumaFree;
 virDomainNumaGetNodeCount;
 virDomainNumaGetNodeCpumask;
 virDomainNumaGetNodeMemoryAccessMode;
+virDomainNumaGetNodeMemorySize;
 virDomainNumaNew;
+virDomainNumaSetNodeMemorySize;
 virDomainNumatuneFormatNodeset;
 virDomainNumatuneFormatXML;
 virDomainNumatuneGetMode;
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index d5cb190dc45b6949974cc0c038f7edbbeb4099c7..dec7a326a77c51f9538b0179b57aa40c5d61a186 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -4747,7 +4747,8 @@ qemuBuildMemoryCellBackendStr(virDomainDefPtr def,
     if (virAsprintf(&alias, "ram-node%zu", cell) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
-    if ((rc = qemuBuildMemoryBackendStr(def->cpu->cells[cell].mem, 0, cell,
+    if ((rc = qemuBuildMemoryBackendStr(virDomainNumaGetNodeMemorySize(def->cpu, cell),
+                                        0, cell,
                                         NULL, auto_nodeset,
                                         def, qemuCaps, cfg,
                                         &backendType, &props, false)) < 0)
@@ -7176,8 +7177,8 @@ qemuBuildNumaArgStr(virQEMUDriverConfigPtr cfg,
     /* using of -numa memdev= cannot be combined with -numa mem=, thus we
      * need to check which approach to use */
     for (i = 0; i < ncells; i++) {
-        unsigned long long cellmem = VIR_DIV_UP(def->cpu->cells[i].mem, 1024);
-        def->cpu->cells[i].mem = cellmem * 1024;
+        unsigned long long cellmem = virDomainNumaGetNodeMemorySize(def->cpu, i);
+        virDomainNumaSetNodeMemorySize(def->cpu, i, VIR_ROUND_UP(cellmem, 1024));
 
         if (virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_RAM) ||
             virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_FILE)) {
@@ -7227,7 +7228,8 @@ qemuBuildNumaArgStr(virQEMUDriverConfigPtr cfg,
         if (needBackend)
             virBufferAsprintf(&buf, ",memdev=ram-node%zu", i);
         else
-            virBufferAsprintf(&buf, ",mem=%llu", def->cpu->cells[i].mem / 1024);
+            virBufferAsprintf(&buf, ",mem=%llu",
+                              virDomainNumaGetNodeMemorySize(def->cpu, i) / 1024);
 
         virCommandAddArgBuffer(cmd, &buf);
     }