diff --git a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/models/Query.java b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/models/Query.java
index 8924556127..765fa01205 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/models/Query.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/models/Query.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 import com.google.api.core.InternalApi;
 import com.google.bigtable.v2.ReadRowsRequest;
+import com.google.bigtable.v2.RowFilter;
 import com.google.bigtable.v2.RowRange;
 import com.google.bigtable.v2.RowSet;
 import com.google.cloud.bigtable.data.v2.internal.ByteStringComparator;
@@ -42,6 +43,9 @@
 public final class Query implements Serializable {
   private static final long serialVersionUID = -316972783499434755L;
 
+  // bigtable can server the largest filter size of 20MB.
+  private static final int MAX_FILTER_SIZE = 20 * 1024 * 1024;
+
   private final String tableId;
   private transient ReadRowsRequest.Builder builder = ReadRowsRequest.newBuilder();
 
@@ -162,7 +166,13 @@ public Query range(ByteStringRange range) {
    * filters, please use {@link Filters#interleave()} or {@link Filters#chain()}.
    */
   public Query filter(Filters.Filter filter) {
-    builder.setFilter(filter.toProto());
+    Preconditions.checkNotNull(filter, "filter can't be null");
+
+    RowFilter rowFilter = filter.toProto();
+    Preconditions.checkArgument(
+        rowFilter.getSerializedSize() < MAX_FILTER_SIZE, "filter size can't be more than 20MB");
+
+    builder.setFilter(rowFilter);
     return this;
   }
 
diff --git a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/models/QueryTest.java b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/models/QueryTest.java
index b073f979ba..bf6abcd168 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/models/QueryTest.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/models/QueryTest.java
@@ -112,6 +112,28 @@ public void rowRangeTest() {
     assertThat(actualProto).isEqualTo(expectedProto.build());
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void filterTestWithExceptions() {
+    Exception actualException = null;
+    try {
+      Query.create(TABLE_ID).filter(null);
+    } catch (Exception ex) {
+      actualException = ex;
+    }
+    assertThat(actualException).isInstanceOf(NullPointerException.class);
+
+    actualException = null;
+    int maxFilterSize = 20 * 1024 * 1024;
+    ByteString largeValue = ByteString.copyFrom(new byte[maxFilterSize + 1]);
+
+    try {
+      Query.create(TABLE_ID).filter(FILTERS.value().exactMatch(largeValue));
+    } catch (Exception ex) {
+      actualException = ex;
+    }
+    assertThat(actualException).hasMessageThat().contains("filter size can't be more than 20MB");
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void filterTest() {
     Query query = Query.create(TABLE_ID).filter(FILTERS.key().regex(".*"));