diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/math/R/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/math/R/default.nix
index 5de644dfdfac..a8fdfe8571a6 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/science/math/R/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/math/R/default.nix
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 , curl, Cocoa, Foundation, libobjc, libcxx, tzdata
 , withRecommendedPackages ? true
 , enableStrictBarrier ? false
+, enableMemoryProfiling ? false
 # R as of writing does not support outputting both .so and .a files; it outputs:
 #     --enable-R-static-lib conflicts with --enable-R-shlib and will be ignored
 , static ? false
@@ -56,6 +57,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       --with-libtiff
       --with-ICU
       ${lib.optionalString enableStrictBarrier "--enable-strict-barrier"}
+      ${lib.optionalString enableMemoryProfiling "--enable-memory-profiling"}
       ${if static then "--enable-R-static-lib" else "--enable-R-shlib"}
       AR=$(type -p ar)
       AWK=$(type -p gawk)