diff --git a/app/helpers/application_helper.rb b/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
index 8ecdeaf8e76..3230ff1b004 100644
--- a/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ module ApplicationHelper
     end
   end
 
-  def avatar_icon(user_or_email = nil, size = nil)
+  def avatar_icon(user_or_email = nil, size = nil, scale = 2)
     if user_or_email.is_a?(User)
       user = user_or_email
     else
@@ -78,12 +78,12 @@ module ApplicationHelper
     if user
       user.avatar_url(size) || default_avatar
     else
-      gravatar_icon(user_or_email, size)
+      gravatar_icon(user_or_email, size, scale)
     end
   end
 
-  def gravatar_icon(user_email = '', size = nil)
-    GravatarService.new.execute(user_email, size) ||
+  def gravatar_icon(user_email = '', size = nil, scale = 2)
+    GravatarService.new.execute(user_email, size, scale) ||
       default_avatar
   end
 
diff --git a/app/models/user.rb b/app/models/user.rb
index 9374f01f99f..e1144ca77be 100644
--- a/app/models/user.rb
+++ b/app/models/user.rb
@@ -637,11 +637,11 @@ class User < ActiveRecord::Base
     email.start_with?('temp-email-for-oauth')
   end
 
-  def avatar_url(size = nil)
+  def avatar_url(size = nil, scale = 2)
     if avatar.present?
       [gitlab_config.url, avatar.url].join
     else
-      GravatarService.new.execute(email, size)
+      GravatarService.new.execute(email, size, scale)
     end
   end
 
diff --git a/app/services/gravatar_service.rb b/app/services/gravatar_service.rb
index 4bee0c26a68..433ecc2df32 100644
--- a/app/services/gravatar_service.rb
+++ b/app/services/gravatar_service.rb
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 class GravatarService
   include Gitlab::CurrentSettings
 
-  def execute(email, size = nil)
+  def execute(email, size = nil, scale = 2)
     if current_application_settings.gravatar_enabled? && email.present?
       size = 40 if size.nil? || size <= 0
 
       sprintf gravatar_url,
         hash: Digest::MD5.hexdigest(email.strip.downcase),
-        size: size,
+        size: size * scale,
         email: email.strip
     end
   end
diff --git a/spec/helpers/application_helper_spec.rb b/spec/helpers/application_helper_spec.rb
index 1dfae0fbd3f..670be75f763 100644
--- a/spec/helpers/application_helper_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/helpers/application_helper_spec.rb
@@ -95,9 +95,9 @@ describe ApplicationHelper do
     end
 
     it 'should call gravatar_icon when no User exists with the given email' do
-      expect(helper).to receive(:gravatar_icon).with('foo@example.com', 20)
+      expect(helper).to receive(:gravatar_icon).with('foo@example.com', 20, 2)
 
-      helper.avatar_icon('foo@example.com', 20)
+      helper.avatar_icon('foo@example.com', 20, 2)
     end
 
     describe 'using a User' do
@@ -150,15 +150,19 @@ describe ApplicationHelper do
         stub_gravatar_setting(plain_url: 'http://example.local/?s=%{size}&hash=%{hash}')
 
         expect(gravatar_icon(user_email, 20)).
-          to eq('http://example.local/?s=20&hash=b58c6f14d292556214bd64909bcdb118')
+          to eq('http://example.local/?s=40&hash=b58c6f14d292556214bd64909bcdb118')
       end
 
       it 'accepts a custom size argument' do
-        expect(helper.gravatar_icon(user_email, 64)).to include '?s=64'
+        expect(helper.gravatar_icon(user_email, 64)).to include '?s=128'
       end
 
-      it 'defaults size to 40 when given an invalid size' do
-        expect(helper.gravatar_icon(user_email, nil)).to include '?s=40'
+      it 'defaults size to 40@2x when given an invalid size' do
+        expect(helper.gravatar_icon(user_email, nil)).to include '?s=80'
+      end
+
+      it 'accepts a scaling factor' do
+        expect(helper.gravatar_icon(user_email, 40, 3)).to include '?s=120'
       end
 
       it 'ignores case and surrounding whitespace' do