diff --git a/docker-compose.prod.yml b/docker-compose.prod.yml
index 9bbaf8b..01a2891 100644
--- a/docker-compose.prod.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.prod.yml
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ services:
         image: mysql:8.0.16
         env_file: .env
         volumes:
+            - ./docker/mysql/mysql-low-memory.cnf:/etc/mysql/conf.d/mysql-low-memory.cnf:ro
             - ./docker/mysql/orct2p.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/orct2p.sql:ro
             - orct2p-db:/var/lib/mysql
         restart: unless-stopped
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 922c4df..7db27ad 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ services:
         ports:
             - "${MYSQL_DEV_PORT}:3306"
         volumes:
+            - ./docker/mysql/mysql-low-memory.cnf:/etc/mysql/conf.d/mysql-low-memory.cnf:ro
             - ./docker/mysql/orct2p.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/orct2p.sql:ro
             - orct2p-db-dev:/var/lib/mysql
         env_file: .env
diff --git a/docker/mysql/mysql-low-memory.cnf b/docker/mysql/mysql-low-memory.cnf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..986c962
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/mysql/mysql-low-memory.cnf
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+[mysqld]
+
+# a few settings were taken from http://www.tocker.ca/2014/03/10/configuring-mysql-to-use-minimal-memory.html
+
+innodb_buffer_pool_size=5M
+innodb_log_buffer_size=256K
+max_connections=10
+key_buffer_size=8
+thread_cache_size=0
+host_cache_size=0
+innodb_ft_cache_size=1600000
+innodb_ft_total_cache_size=32000000
+
+# per thread or per operation settings
+thread_stack=131072
+sort_buffer_size=32K
+read_buffer_size=8200
+read_rnd_buffer_size=8200
+max_heap_table_size=16K
+tmp_table_size=1K
+bulk_insert_buffer_size=0
+join_buffer_size=128
+net_buffer_length=1K
+innodb_sort_buffer_size=64K
+
+#settings that relate to the binary log (if enabled)
+binlog_cache_size=4K
+binlog_stmt_cache_size=4K
+
+# this one has the biggest impact on memory usage
+performance_schema=0
\ No newline at end of file