diff --git a/my-cnf-gen.sh b/my-cnf-gen.sh
index aadad66..fa7a396 100755
--- a/my-cnf-gen.sh
+++ b/my-cnf-gen.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 set -euo pipefail
 
-MARIADB_MEMORY_PERCENT=25
+MARIADB_USAGE="${MARIADB_USAGE:-25}"
 MIN_BUFFER_POOL_MB=256
 MAX_CONNECTIONS_MIN=80
 MAX_CONNECTIONS_MAX=300
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Usage:
   my-cnf-gen.sh [--output PATH]
 
 Generates a conservative MariaDB 10.6 my.cnf for DirectAdmin servers.
-The InnoDB buffer pool is sized to about 25% RAM so other DA services
+The InnoDB buffer pool is sized from MARIADB_USAGE percent of RAM so other DA services
 such as web, exim, dovecot, redis and spam filtering keep enough memory.
 EOF
 }
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ calc_buffer_pool_mb() {
     local mem_mb="$1"
     local pool_mb
 
-    pool_mb=$((mem_mb * MARIADB_MEMORY_PERCENT / 100))
+    pool_mb=$((mem_mb * MARIADB_USAGE / 100))
     if (( pool_mb < MIN_BUFFER_POOL_MB )); then
         pool_mb="$MIN_BUFFER_POOL_MB"
     fi
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ generate_config() {
 # Generated by my-cnf-gen.sh for MariaDB 10.6 and DirectAdmin stack hosts.
 # Detected RAM: ${mem_mb}M
 # Detected CPU cores: ${cores}
-# MariaDB memory budget: ${MARIADB_MEMORY_PERCENT}% RAM
+# MariaDB memory budget: ${MARIADB_USAGE}% RAM
 
 [client]
 port=3306
diff --git a/tests/quality_checks.sh b/tests/quality_checks.sh
index a0cde74..a3ec1e5 100644
--- a/tests/quality_checks.sh
+++ b/tests/quality_checks.sh
@@ -203,7 +203,8 @@ assert_file_contains "$ROOT_DIR/my.cnf" 'query_cache_size=0'
 assert_file_not_contains "$ROOT_DIR/my.cnf" 'query-cache-type'
 assert_file_not_contains "$ROOT_DIR/my.cnf" 'query-cache-size'
 assert_file_not_contains "$ROOT_DIR/my.cnf" 'innodb_file_format'
-assert_file_contains "$ROOT_DIR/my-cnf-gen.sh" 'MARIADB_MEMORY_PERCENT=25'
+assert_file_contains "$ROOT_DIR/my-cnf-gen.sh" 'MARIADB_USAGE="\$\{MARIADB_USAGE:-25\}"'
+assert_file_not_contains "$ROOT_DIR/my-cnf-gen.sh" 'MARIADB_MEMORY_PERCENT'
 assert_file_contains "$ROOT_DIR/my-cnf-gen.sh" 'MYSQL_GEN_MEM_MB'
 assert_file_contains "$ROOT_DIR/my-cnf-gen.sh" 'MYSQL_GEN_CPU_CORES'
 assert_file_contains "$ROOT_DIR/my-cnf-gen.sh" '/proc/meminfo'
@@ -231,6 +232,8 @@ MYSQL_GEN_MEM_MB=8192 MYSQL_GEN_CPU_CORES=4 "$ROOT_DIR/my-cnf-gen.sh" --output "
 grep -qx 'innodb_buffer_pool_size=2G' "$generated_my_cnf" || fail "generated my.cnf should allocate 25% of 8G to InnoDB"
 grep -qx 'max_connections=80' "$generated_my_cnf" || fail "generated my.cnf should keep low-RAM max_connections conservative"
 grep -qx 'query_cache_size=0' "$generated_my_cnf" || fail "generated my.cnf should disable query cache"
+MARIADB_USAGE=50 MYSQL_GEN_MEM_MB=8192 MYSQL_GEN_CPU_CORES=4 "$ROOT_DIR/my-cnf-gen.sh" --output "$generated_my_cnf"
+grep -qx 'innodb_buffer_pool_size=4G' "$generated_my_cnf" || fail "MARIADB_USAGE override should change InnoDB allocation"
 
 kv_file="$tmp_dir/example.conf"
 printf 'ns1=old.example\nother=value\n' > "$kv_file"