diff --git a/libcxx/include/string b/libcxx/include/string
--- a/libcxx/include/string
+++ b/libcxx/include/string
@@ -1872,7 +1872,17 @@
         _LIBCPP_HIDE_FROM_ABI _LIBCPP_CONSTEXPR_SINCE_CXX20
         size_type __align_it(size_type __s) _NOEXCEPT
             {return (__s + (__a-1)) & ~(__a-1);}
-    enum {__alignment = 16};
+    // Round up allocations to 8 bytes. Previous versions of std::string used a
+    // a value of 16 based on malloc() returning 16 byte aligned allocations.
+    // The motivation likely being that the requested size is as close as is
+    // possible to the 'perfect fit'. However, glibc's malloc() uses 8 bytes
+    // of overhead for small allocations, which results in a usable size of
+    // `N * 16 + 8`. Rounding to 16 bytes here thus results in extra waste.
+    // Likewise, other allocators such as tcmalloc() have fine grained 8 byte
+    // alignments for various size classes, which also results in waste.
+    // Once the `size returning new` features is in the standard (P0901), we
+    // can leave all this rounding to the `allocate_at_least` function.
+    enum {__alignment = 8};
     static _LIBCPP_HIDE_FROM_ABI _LIBCPP_CONSTEXPR_SINCE_CXX20
     size_type __recommend(size_type __s) _NOEXCEPT
     {
@@ -2318,10 +2328,36 @@
     size_type __ms = max_size();
     if (__delta_cap > __ms - __old_cap - 1)
         __throw_length_error();
-    pointer __old_p = __get_pointer();
-    size_type __cap = __old_cap < __ms / 2 - __alignment ?
-                          __recommend(std::max(__old_cap + __delta_cap, 2 * __old_cap)) :
-                          __ms - 1;
+    pointer __old_p;
+    size_type __cap;
+    if (__is_long()) {
+        __old_p = __get_long_pointer();
+        __cap   = __old_cap < __ms / 2 - __alignment
+                    ? __recommend(std::max(__old_cap + __delta_cap, 2 * __old_cap))
+                    : __ms - 1;
+    } else {
+        // The current string is inlined (SSO). In this case we do not want to
+        // double the capacity for amortized growth as that can be wasteful.
+        // Consider the following code:
+        //   std::string s("");
+        //   s = "This is a string of 33 characters";
+        // Doubling the capacity here (to guarantee amortized growth) results in
+        // a min cap of 44, which including terminating zero rounds to 48 bytes.
+        // Allocating 48 bytes in standard glibc malloc results in an allocation
+        // of 64 bytes including 8 bytes overhead: glibc malloc (ptmalloc) small
+        // allocations align on 16 bytes with 8 bytes overhead. The effective
+        // size then being N * 16 + 8.
+        // If we had allocated the exact size required, we come to 34 bytes
+        // which rounds to 40 bytes, which in glibc results in an allocation of
+        // 48 including overhead. Shorter: for all string lengths 23 - 39, we
+        // would allocate 16 bytes more than required, which adds up, especially
+        // if we consider that strings are predominantly short.
+        // We only need to guarantee amortized growth on continuous growth, so
+        // we can simply request the exact size here, and only apply the minimum
+        // doubling on subsequent growth on 'long' string values.
+        __old_p = __get_short_pointer();
+        __cap   = __recommend(__old_cap + __delta_cap);
+    }
     auto __allocation = std::__allocate_at_least(__alloc(), __cap + 1);
     pointer __p = __allocation.ptr;
     __begin_lifetime(__p, __allocation.count);
@@ -2359,10 +2395,20 @@
     size_type __ms = max_size();
     if (__delta_cap > __ms - __old_cap)
         __throw_length_error();
-    pointer __old_p = __get_pointer();
-    size_type __cap = __old_cap < __ms / 2 - __alignment ?
-                          __recommend(std::max(__old_cap + __delta_cap, 2 * __old_cap)) :
-                          __ms - 1;
+    pointer __old_p;
+    size_type __cap;
+    if (__is_long()) {
+        __old_p = __get_long_pointer();
+        __cap   = __old_cap < __ms / 2 - __alignment
+                    ? __recommend(std::max(__old_cap + __delta_cap, 2 * __old_cap))
+                    : __ms - 1;
+    } else {
+        // The current string is inlined (SSO). In this case we do not want to
+        // double the capacity for amortized growth as that can be wasteful.
+        // See the comments in `__grow_by_and_replace` for more information.
+        __old_p = __get_short_pointer();
+        __cap   = __recommend(__old_cap + __delta_cap);
+    }
     auto __allocation = std::__allocate_at_least(__alloc(), __cap + 1);
     pointer __p = __allocation.ptr;
     __begin_lifetime(__p, __allocation.count);
diff --git a/libcxx/test/libcxx/strings/basic.string/string.capacity/max_size.pass.cpp b/libcxx/test/libcxx/strings/basic.string/string.capacity/max_size.pass.cpp
--- a/libcxx/test/libcxx/strings/basic.string/string.capacity/max_size.pass.cpp
+++ b/libcxx/test/libcxx/strings/basic.string/string.capacity/max_size.pass.cpp
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@
 
 #include "test_macros.h"
 
-// alignment of the string heap buffer is hardcoded to 16
-static const std::size_t alignment = 16;
+// alignment of the string heap buffer is hard coded to 8.
+static const std::size_t alignment = 8;
 
 template <class = int>
 TEST_CONSTEXPR_CXX20 void full_size() {