diff --git a/lib/gitlab/utils.rb b/lib/gitlab/utils.rb
index 99fa65e0e90..16ec8a8bb28 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/utils.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/utils.rb
@@ -104,6 +104,12 @@ module Gitlab
       nil
     end
 
+    def try_megabytes_to_bytes(size)
+      Integer(size).megabytes
+    rescue ArgumentError
+      size
+    end
+
     def bytes_to_megabytes(bytes)
       bytes.to_f / Numeric::MEGABYTE
     end
diff --git a/spec/lib/gitlab/utils_spec.rb b/spec/lib/gitlab/utils_spec.rb
index 8f5029b3565..4645339f439 100644
--- a/spec/lib/gitlab/utils_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/gitlab/utils_spec.rb
@@ -213,4 +213,22 @@ describe Gitlab::Utils do
       expect(subject[:variables].first[:key]).to eq('VAR1')
     end
   end
+
+  describe '.try_megabytes_to_bytes' do
+    context 'when the size can be converted to megabytes' do
+      it 'returns the size in megabytes' do
+        size = described_class.try_megabytes_to_bytes(1)
+
+        expect(size).to eq(1.megabytes)
+      end
+    end
+
+    context 'when the size can not be converted to megabytes' do
+      it 'returns the input size' do
+        size = described_class.try_megabytes_to_bytes('foo')
+
+        expect(size).to eq('foo')
+      end
+    end
+  end
 end