diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
index 4c62a44449..326c939c85 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
@@ -2236,6 +2236,8 @@ qemuDomainObjPrivateXMLParseAutomaticPlacement(xmlXPathContextPtr ctxt,
     virCapsPtr caps = NULL;
     char *nodeset;
     char *cpuset;
+    int nodesetSize = 0;
+    size_t i;
     int ret = -1;
 
     nodeset = virXPathString("string(./numad/@nodeset)", ctxt);
@@ -2247,8 +2249,14 @@ qemuDomainObjPrivateXMLParseAutomaticPlacement(xmlXPathContextPtr ctxt,
     if (!(caps = virQEMUDriverGetCapabilities(driver, false)))
         goto cleanup;
 
+    /* Figure out how big the nodeset bitmap needs to be.
+     * This is necessary because NUMA node IDs are not guaranteed to
+     * start from 0 or be densely allocated */
+    for (i = 0; i < caps->host.nnumaCell; i++)
+        nodesetSize = MAX(nodesetSize, caps->host.numaCell[i]->num + 1);
+
     if (nodeset &&
-        virBitmapParse(nodeset, &priv->autoNodeset, caps->host.nnumaCell_max) < 0)
+        virBitmapParse(nodeset, &priv->autoNodeset, nodesetSize) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
     if (cpuset) {
diff --git a/tests/qemustatusxml2xmldata/modern-in.xml b/tests/qemustatusxml2xmldata/modern-in.xml
index 2e166e6e67..c1e57618b6 100644
--- a/tests/qemustatusxml2xmldata/modern-in.xml
+++ b/tests/qemustatusxml2xmldata/modern-in.xml
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@
     <device alias='usb'/>
     <device alias='ide0-0-0'/>
   </devices>
-  <numad nodeset='0' cpuset='0-7'/>
+  <numad nodeset='6' cpuset='0-7'/>
   <libDir path='/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain-1-upstream'/>
   <channelTargetDir path='/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/channel/target/domain-1-upstream'/>
   <chardevStdioLogd/>