diff --git a/augur/filter/_run.py b/augur/filter/_run.py
index db50b355d..971a41707 100644
--- a/augur/filter/_run.py
+++ b/augur/filter/_run.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile
 from . import constants
 from .dates import parse_dates
-from .io import initialize_input_source_table, import_metadata, import_sequence_index, print_debug_report, write_outputs
+from .io import check_disk_space, initialize_input_source_table, import_metadata, import_sequence_index, print_debug_report, write_outputs
 from .include_exclude_rules import apply_filters, construct_filters
 from .report import print_report
 from .subsample import apply_subsampling
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ def run(args: Namespace):
         if args.debug:
             constants.RUNTIME_DEBUG = True
 
+        check_disk_space(args.metadata)
+
         initialize_input_source_table()
 
         import_metadata(args.metadata, args.metadata_id_columns, args.metadata_delimiters)
diff --git a/augur/filter/io.py b/augur/filter/io.py
index 57e55cce1..54f45293f 100644
--- a/augur/filter/io.py
+++ b/augur/filter/io.py
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
+import io
 import os
 from typing import Iterable, Sequence, Set
 from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile
+
+import xopen
 from augur.errors import AugurError
 from augur.filter.debug import add_debugging
 from augur.index import (
@@ -19,6 +22,33 @@
 from . import constants
 
 
+def check_disk_space(metadata_file: str):
+    """Check whether there is enough disk space for augur filter to run, and
+    raise an error if there is not enough.
+    """
+    # The database file is expected to be about 2x the disk space used by
+    # uncompressed metadata. This is an estimation based on test runs.
+
+    import shutil
+    total, used, free = shutil.disk_usage(__file__)
+
+    metadata = Metadata(metadata_file, id_columns=("strain", "name"))
+
+    try:
+        # Use threads=0 to force usage of Python libraries which implement seek and tell.
+        with metadata.open(threads=0) as f:
+            # This works for some streams, including uncompressed and gzip.
+            f.seek(0, os.SEEK_END)
+            size = f.tell()
+            if free < size * 2:
+                raise AugurError(f"Not enough disk space. augur filter will need to write a database file with expected size {_human_readable_size(size * 2)}.")
+            return
+    except io.UnsupportedOperation:
+        print_err("WARNING: File size of metadata could not be determined. If the uncompressed data is large, you may run out of disk space.")
+        # FIXME: For ZSTD files, try using frame content sizes (if available).
+        # ¹ https://github.com/facebook/zstd/blob/dev/doc/zstd_compression_format.md#frame_header
+
+
 def import_priorities_table(path):
     """Import a priorities file into the database."""
     try: