diff --git a/crates/x-media/src/site/mod.rs b/crates/x-media/src/site/mod.rs
index 970ea00..1e327be 100644
--- a/crates/x-media/src/site/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/x-media/src/site/mod.rs
@@ -191,6 +191,9 @@ pub enum FetchError {
     TooLarge,
     /// A transient server-side failure (429 / 5xx); [`fetch`] retries these.
     Transient(String),
+    /// A local I/O failure while streaming a download to disk
+    /// (see [`download_media_to_file`]).
+    Io(std::io::Error),
 }
 
 impl fmt::Display for FetchError {
@@ -204,6 +207,7 @@ impl fmt::Display for FetchError {
             FetchError::Sensitive => write!(f, "content withheld (sensitive)"),
             FetchError::TooLarge => write!(f, "media too large"),
             FetchError::Transient(message) => write!(f, "transient: {message}"),
+            FetchError::Io(e) => write!(f, "io error: {e}"),
         }
     }
 }
@@ -217,6 +221,7 @@ impl std::error::Error for FetchError {
             FetchError::NotFound | FetchError::Blocked | FetchError::Sensitive => None,
             FetchError::TooLarge => None,
             FetchError::Transient(_) => None,
+            FetchError::Io(e) => Some(e),
         }
     }
 }
@@ -384,6 +389,41 @@ pub async fn download_media(url: &str) -> Result<bytes::Bytes, FetchError> {
     download_media_limited(url, u64::MAX).await
 }
 
+/// Streams a download to `out`, aborting with [`FetchError::TooLarge`] the
+/// moment the body crosses `max_bytes` (or when a declared Content-Length
+/// already exceeds it). Unlike [`download_media_limited`] the body is never
+/// buffered in memory — used for large files (e.g. the pixiv ugoira frame
+/// zip, which can be hundreds of MB) that would otherwise spike RAM.
+/// Returns the number of bytes written.
+pub async fn download_media_to_file(
+    url: &str,
+    max_bytes: u64,
+    out: &mut std::fs::File,
+) -> Result<u64, FetchError> {
+    use std::io::Write;
+    let mut request = CLIENT.get(url);
+    let lower = url.to_ascii_lowercase();
+    if lower.contains("pximg.net") {
+        request = request.header("Referer", "https://www.pixiv.net/");
+    }
+    let response = request.send().await?.error_for_status()?;
+    if let Some(len) = response.content_length()
+        && len > max_bytes
+    {
+        return Err(FetchError::TooLarge);
+    }
+    let mut response = response;
+    let mut total: u64 = 0;
+    while let Some(chunk) = response.chunk().await? {
+        total += chunk.len() as u64;
+        if total > max_bytes {
+            return Err(FetchError::TooLarge);
+        }
+        out.write_all(&chunk).map_err(FetchError::Io)?;
+    }
+    Ok(total)
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
@@ -449,7 +489,11 @@ mod tests {
     fn truncate_caption_cuts_long_text_with_ellipsis() {
         let long = "x".repeat(MAX_CAPTION_CHARS + 100);
         let out = truncate_caption(&long);
-        assert!(out.chars().count() <= MAX_CAPTION_CHARS, "len {}", out.chars().count());
+        assert!(
+            out.chars().count() <= MAX_CAPTION_CHARS,
+            "len {}",
+            out.chars().count()
+        );
         assert!(out.ends_with('…'));
     }
 
diff --git a/crates/x-media/src/site/pixiv/api.rs b/crates/x-media/src/site/pixiv/api.rs
index eaada6d..5434236 100644
--- a/crates/x-media/src/site/pixiv/api.rs
+++ b/crates/x-media/src/site/pixiv/api.rs
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ use crate::media::Media;
 use crate::site::FetchError;
 use std::env;
 use std::fmt;
-use std::io::{Cursor, Read};
+use std::io::Read;
 use std::sync::LazyLock;
 use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicBool, Ordering};
 use std::time::{Duration, SystemTime};
@@ -228,7 +228,14 @@ impl PixivAPI {
         let Some(zip_url) = zip_url else {
             return Ok(None);
         };
-        let zip_bytes = crate::site::download_media_limited(&zip_url, 512 * 1024 * 1024)
+        // Stream the frame zip to a temp file instead of buffering it in
+        // memory: ugoira zips can be hundreds of MB, and the old
+        // download_media_limited path spiked RAM up to the size cap.
+        let mut zip_file = tempfile::Builder::new()
+            .suffix(".zip")
+            .tempfile()
+            .map_err(|e| PixivError::Api(format!("temp zip failed: {e}")))?;
+        crate::site::download_media_to_file(&zip_url, 512 * 1024 * 1024, zip_file.as_file_mut())
             .await
             .map_err(|e| match e {
                 FetchError::Http(e) => PixivError::Http(e),
@@ -241,9 +248,12 @@ impl PixivAPI {
                 let out_dir = tempfile::tempdir().map_err(|e| e.to_string())?;
 
                 // Extract frames to canonical zero-padded names; pixiv ugoira
-                // frames are uniformly jpg or png per artwork.
-                let mut archive = zip::ZipArchive::new(Cursor::new(zip_bytes))
-                    .map_err(|e| format!("unzip: {e}"))?;
+                // frames are uniformly jpg or png per artwork. The zip is read
+                // from disk; `zip_file` stays alive for the whole extraction.
+                let mut archive = zip::ZipArchive::new(
+                    std::fs::File::open(zip_file.path()).map_err(|e| e.to_string())?,
+                )
+                .map_err(|e| format!("unzip: {e}"))?;
                 if archive.is_empty() {
                     return Err("empty frame zip".to_string());
                 }