diff --git a/src/uu/od/src/od.rs b/src/uu/od/src/od.rs
index 58ad1fdb18d..1e59bf675a3 100644
--- a/src/uu/od/src/od.rs
+++ b/src/uu/od/src/od.rs
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ mod prn_float;
 mod prn_int;
 
 use std::cmp;
-use std::fmt::Write;
 use std::io::{BufReader, Read};
 
 use crate::byteorder_io::ByteOrder;
@@ -695,6 +694,33 @@ fn extract_strings_from_input(
     }
 }
 
+/// Writes `n` spaces to `writer` without allocating a string for them.
+///
+/// The padding in front of an ascii dump grows with `-w`, which accepts huge
+/// values, so it has to be written in chunks rather than materialized.
+fn write_spaces(writer: &mut impl std::io::Write, n: usize) -> std::io::Result<()> {
+    const SPACES: [u8; 512] = [b' '; 512];
+
+    let mut remaining = n;
+    while remaining != 0 {
+        let chunk = cmp::min(remaining, SPACES.len());
+        writer.write_all(&SPACES[..chunk])?;
+        remaining -= chunk;
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+/// Writes `s` to `writer`, adding its width in characters to `line_width`.
+fn write_field(
+    writer: &mut impl std::io::Write,
+    s: &str,
+    line_width: &mut usize,
+) -> std::io::Result<()> {
+    writer.write_all(s.as_bytes())?;
+    *line_width += s.chars().count();
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 /// Outputs a single line of input, into one or more lines human readable output.
 fn write_bytes(
     writer: &mut impl std::io::Write,
@@ -704,37 +730,49 @@ fn write_bytes(
 ) -> std::io::Result<()> {
     let mut first = true; // First line of a multi-format raster.
     for f in output_info.spaced_formatters_iter() {
-        let mut output_text = String::new();
+        if first {
+            write!(writer, "{prefix}")?; // print offset
+            // if printing in multiple formats offset is printed only once
+            first = false;
+        } else {
+            // this takes the space of the file offset on subsequent
+            // lines of multi-format rasters.
+            write_spaces(writer, prefix.chars().count())?;
+        }
 
+        // The formatted fields are written out as they are produced: a line
+        // holds up to `-w` bytes of input, so buffering it would allocate
+        // several times the width, which can be huge.
+        let mut line_width = 0;
         let mut b = 0;
         while b < input_decoder.length() {
-            write!(
-                output_text,
-                "{:>width$}",
-                "",
-                width = f.spacing[b % output_info.byte_size_block]
-            )
-            .unwrap();
+            let spacing = f.spacing[b % output_info.byte_size_block];
+            write_spaces(writer, spacing)?;
+            line_width += spacing;
 
             match f.formatter_item_info.formatter {
                 FormatWriter::IntWriter(func) => {
                     let p = input_decoder.read_uint(b, f.formatter_item_info.byte_size);
-                    output_text.push_str(&func(p));
+                    write_field(writer, &func(p), &mut line_width)?;
                 }
                 FormatWriter::FloatWriter(func) => {
                     let p = input_decoder.read_float(b, f.formatter_item_info.byte_size);
-                    output_text.push_str(&func(p));
+                    write_field(writer, &func(p), &mut line_width)?;
                 }
                 FormatWriter::LongDoubleWriter(func) => {
                     let p = input_decoder.read_long_double(b);
-                    output_text.push_str(&func(p));
+                    write_field(writer, &func(p), &mut line_width)?;
                 }
                 FormatWriter::BFloatWriter(func) => {
                     let p = input_decoder.read_bfloat(b);
-                    output_text.push_str(&func(p));
+                    write_field(writer, &func(p), &mut line_width)?;
                 }
                 FormatWriter::MultibyteWriter(func) => {
-                    output_text.push_str(&func(input_decoder.get_full_buffer(b)));
+                    write_field(
+                        writer,
+                        &func(input_decoder.get_full_buffer(b)),
+                        &mut line_width,
+                    )?;
                 }
             }
 
@@ -742,24 +780,11 @@ fn write_bytes(
         }
 
         if f.add_ascii_dump {
-            let missing_spacing = output_info
-                .print_width_line
-                .saturating_sub(output_text.chars().count());
-            output_text.extend(std::iter::repeat_n(' ', missing_spacing));
-            output_text.push_str("  ");
-            output_text.push_str(&format_ascii_dump(input_decoder.get_buffer(0)));
-        }
-
-        if first {
-            write!(writer, "{prefix}")?; // print offset
-            // if printing in multiple formats offset is printed only once
-            first = false;
-        } else {
-            // this takes the space of the file offset on subsequent
-            // lines of multi-format rasters.
-            write!(writer, "{:>width$}", "", width = prefix.chars().count())?;
+            let missing_spacing = output_info.print_width_line.saturating_sub(line_width);
+            write_spaces(writer, missing_spacing + 2)?;
+            write!(writer, "{}", format_ascii_dump(input_decoder.get_buffer(0)))?;
         }
-        writeln!(writer, "{output_text}")?;
+        writeln!(writer)?;
     }
     Ok(())
 }
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_od.rs b/tests/by-util/test_od.rs
index 8be3893c487..8868bca7caa 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_od.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_od.rs
@@ -441,6 +441,23 @@ fn test_width() {
         .stdout_only(expected_output);
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn test_large_width_ascii_dump() {
+    // A line is padded up to the full width before the ascii dump, so the
+    // output for a single byte is 4 * WIDTH + 21 characters wide. Checks that
+    // such a line comes out intact; the memory behavior at widths that cannot
+    // be buffered at all is covered by the GNU test suite (od/big-w.sh).
+    const WIDTH: usize = 4_000_000;
+
+    let mut cmd = new_ucmd!();
+    let result = cmd
+        .args(&[format!("-w{WIDTH}"), "-tcz".into()])
+        .run_piped_stdin(&b"x"[..]);
+    let stdout = result.success().stdout_str();
+    assert_eq!(stdout.len(), 4 * WIDTH + 21);
+    assert!(stdout.ends_with("  >x<\n0000001\n"));
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn test_invalid_width() {
     let input: [u8; 4] = [0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00];