diff --git a/Iceshrimp.Backend/Core/Configuration/Config.cs b/Iceshrimp.Backend/Core/Configuration/Config.cs
index 569e6cdd..e7cf4ce2 100644
--- a/Iceshrimp.Backend/Core/Configuration/Config.cs
+++ b/Iceshrimp.Backend/Core/Configuration/Config.cs
@@ -203,9 +203,10 @@ public sealed class Config
 		public ImagePipelineSection ImagePipeline { get; init; } = new();
 
 		public readonly int                  MaxFileSizeBytes = 10 * 1024 * 1024;
-		public          Enums.ImageProcessor ImageProcessor   { get; init; } = Enums.ImageProcessor.ImageSharp;
-		public          int                  MaxResolutionMpx { get; init; } = 30;
-		public          bool                 LocalOnly        { get; init; } = false;
+		public          Enums.ImageProcessor ImageProcessor           { get; init; } = Enums.ImageProcessor.ImageSharp;
+		public          int                  MaxResolutionMpx         { get; init; } = 30;
+		public          bool                 LocalOnly                { get; init; } = false;
+		public          bool                 FailIfImageExceedsMaxRes { get; init; } = false;
 
 		[Range(0, 128)] public int ImageProcessorConcurrency { get; init; } = 8;
 
diff --git a/Iceshrimp.Backend/Core/Services/DriveService.cs b/Iceshrimp.Backend/Core/Services/DriveService.cs
index 312d5f50..a9f10ddb 100644
--- a/Iceshrimp.Backend/Core/Services/DriveService.cs
+++ b/Iceshrimp.Backend/Core/Services/DriveService.cs
@@ -263,9 +263,16 @@ public class DriveService(
 					}
 					else if (ident.Width * ident.Height > storageConfig.Value.MediaProcessing.MaxResolutionPx)
 					{
+						var config = storageConfig.Value.MediaProcessing;
+						if (config.FailIfImageExceedsMaxRes)
+						{
+							// @formatter:off
+							throw GracefulException.UnprocessableEntity($"Image is larger than {config.MaxResolutionMpx}mpx. Please resize your image to fit within the allowed dimensions.");
+							// @formatter:on
+						}
+
 						logger.LogDebug("Image is larger than {mpx}mpx ({width}x{height}), bypassing image processing...",
-						                storageConfig.Value.MediaProcessing.MaxResolutionMpx, ident.Width,
-						                ident.Height);
+						                config.MaxResolutionMpx, ident.Width, ident.Height);
 						skipImageProcessing = true;
 					}
 
diff --git a/Iceshrimp.Backend/configuration.ini b/Iceshrimp.Backend/configuration.ini
index ebec0628..b9f0bd0e 100644
--- a/Iceshrimp.Backend/configuration.ini
+++ b/Iceshrimp.Backend/configuration.ini
@@ -158,9 +158,14 @@ MaxFileSize = 10M
 
 ;; Maximum resolution for files to be considered for image processing, in megapixels
 ;; Note that processing an image requires up to 4MB of system memory per megapixel, in some edge case scenarios.
-;; Caution: metadata (e.g. location data) for locally originating images will *not* be stripped for files larger than this
+;; Caution: metadata (e.g. location data) for locally originating images will *not* be stripped for files larger than this.
+;; If this is unwanted behavior, enable FailIfImageExceedsMaxRes.
 MaxResolutionMpx = 30
 
+;; Should you prefer to reject locally originating images that exceed MaxResolutionMpx, set this option to true.
+;; Note that this does not apply to remote images, or to local images in a format not supported by the configured image processor.
+FailIfImageExceedsMaxRes = false
+
 ;; Maxmimum concurrent image encode tasks to run. (0 = no limit)
 ImageProcessorConcurrency = 8