diff --git a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/codec/ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter.java b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/codec/ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter.java
index fba05c19414..18814135ae1 100644
--- a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/codec/ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter.java
+++ b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/codec/ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter.java
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ import org.springframework.core.codec.Encoder;
 import org.springframework.core.codec.Hints;
 import org.springframework.core.io.buffer.DataBuffer;
 import org.springframework.core.io.buffer.DataBufferFactory;
+import org.springframework.core.io.buffer.DataBufferUtils;
+import org.springframework.core.io.buffer.PooledDataBuffer;
 import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
 import org.springframework.http.ReactiveHttpOutputMessage;
 import org.springframework.http.server.reactive.ServerHttpRequest;
@@ -144,7 +146,8 @@ public class ServerSentEventHttpMessageWriter implements HttpMessageWriter<Objec
 
 			return Flux.concat(encodeText(sb, mediaType, factory),
 					encodeData(data, valueType, mediaType, factory, hints),
-					encodeText("\n", mediaType, factory));
+					encodeText("\n", mediaType, factory))
+					.doOnDiscard(PooledDataBuffer.class, DataBufferUtils::release);
 		});
 	}