diff --git a/include/binder/MemoryDealer.h b/include/binder/MemoryDealer.h
index aa415d5..60a624c 100644
--- a/include/binder/MemoryDealer.h
+++ b/include/binder/MemoryDealer.h
@@ -41,6 +41,9 @@
     virtual void        deallocate(size_t offset);
     virtual void        dump(const char* what) const;
 
+    // allocations are aligned to some value. return that value so clients can account for it.
+    static size_t      getAllocationAlignment();
+
     sp<IMemoryHeap> getMemoryHeap() const { return heap(); }
 
 protected:
diff --git a/libs/binder/MemoryDealer.cpp b/libs/binder/MemoryDealer.cpp
index 8739625..51eac11 100644
--- a/libs/binder/MemoryDealer.cpp
+++ b/libs/binder/MemoryDealer.cpp
@@ -135,6 +135,8 @@
     void        dump(const char* what) const;
     void        dump(String8& res, const char* what) const;
 
+    static size_t getAllocationAlignment() { return kMemoryAlign; }
+
 private:
 
     struct chunk_t {
@@ -264,6 +266,12 @@
     return mAllocator;
 }
 
+// static
+size_t MemoryDealer::getAllocationAlignment()
+{
+    return SimpleBestFitAllocator::getAllocationAlignment();
+}
+
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 // align all the memory blocks on a cache-line boundary