diff --git a/libvips/foreign/webp2vips.c b/libvips/foreign/webp2vips.c
index 5fde4622..1975df42 100644
--- a/libvips/foreign/webp2vips.c
+++ b/libvips/foreign/webp2vips.c
@@ -298,6 +298,8 @@ vips__webp_read_buffer( void *buf, size_t len, VipsImage *out )
 	if( read_image( read, out ) )
 		return( -1 );
 
+	read_free( read );
+
 	return( 0 );
 }