diff --git a/hw/vfio/helpers.c b/hw/vfio/helpers.c
index b9e606e364..913796f437 100644
--- a/hw/vfio/helpers.c
+++ b/hw/vfio/helpers.c
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 #include "trace.h"
 #include "qapi/error.h"
 #include "qemu/error-report.h"
+#include "qemu/units.h"
 #include "monitor/monitor.h"
 
 /*
@@ -406,8 +407,35 @@ int vfio_region_mmap(VFIORegion *region)
     prot |= region->flags & VFIO_REGION_INFO_FLAG_WRITE ? PROT_WRITE : 0;
 
     for (i = 0; i < region->nr_mmaps; i++) {
-        region->mmaps[i].mmap = mmap(NULL, region->mmaps[i].size, prot,
-                                     MAP_SHARED, region->vbasedev->fd,
+        size_t align = MIN(1ULL << ctz64(region->mmaps[i].size), 1 * GiB);
+        void *map_base, *map_align;
+
+        /*
+         * Align the mmap for more efficient mapping in the kernel.  Ideally
+         * we'd know the PMD and PUD mapping sizes to use as discrete alignment
+         * intervals, but we don't.  As of Linux v6.12, the largest PUD size
+         * supporting huge pfnmap is 1GiB (ARCH_SUPPORTS_PUD_PFNMAP is only set
+         * on x86_64).  Align by power-of-two size, capped at 1GiB.
+         *
+         * NB. qemu_memalign() and friends actually allocate memory, whereas
+         * the region size here can exceed host memory, therefore we manually
+         * create an oversized anonymous mapping and clean it up for alignment.
+         */
+        map_base = mmap(0, region->mmaps[i].size + align, PROT_NONE,
+                        MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0);
+        if (map_base == MAP_FAILED) {
+            ret = -errno;
+            goto no_mmap;
+        }
+
+        map_align = (void *)ROUND_UP((uintptr_t)map_base, (uintptr_t)align);
+        munmap(map_base, map_align - map_base);
+        munmap(map_align + region->mmaps[i].size,
+               align - (map_align - map_base));
+
+        region->mmaps[i].mmap = mmap(map_align, region->mmaps[i].size, prot,
+                                     MAP_SHARED | MAP_FIXED,
+                                     region->vbasedev->fd,
                                      region->fd_offset +
                                      region->mmaps[i].offset);
         if (region->mmaps[i].mmap == MAP_FAILED) {