diff --git a/src/nf_modules/kb/main.nf b/src/nf_modules/kb/main.nf
index 97d90b27811e948b91c34ddce9947d6880064e68..fe08a0df8093a34ef4eb5026a85bee6d6db60ac1 100644
--- a/src/nf_modules/kb/main.nf
+++ b/src/nf_modules/kb/main.nf
@@ -185,6 +185,7 @@ process kb_marseq {
   tuple val(file_id), path("*_report.txt"), emit: report
 
   script:
+  memory = "${task.memory}" - ~/\s*GB/
   if (file_id instanceof List){
     file_prefix = file_id[0]
   } else {
@@ -199,7 +200,7 @@ process kb_marseq {
   """
   mkdir ${file_prefix}
   kb count  -t ${task.cpus} \
-    -m ${task.memory} \
+    -m ${memory} \
     -i ${index} \
     -g ${transcript_to_gene} \
     ${whitelist_param} \