diff --git a/common/scala/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/connector/kafka/KafkaMessagingProvider.scala b/common/scala/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/connector/kafka/KafkaMessagingProvider.scala
index dd388952708..22bc1cc05de 100644
--- a/common/scala/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/connector/kafka/KafkaMessagingProvider.scala
+++ b/common/scala/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/connector/kafka/KafkaMessagingProvider.scala
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ object KafkaMessagingProvider extends MessagingProvider {
     val topicConfig = KafkaConfiguration.configMapToKafkaConfig(
       loadConfigOrThrow[Map[String, String]](ConfigKeys.kafkaTopics + "." + topicConfigKey)) ++
       (maxMessageBytes.map { max =>
-        Map(s"max.message.bytes" -> max.size.toString)
+        Map("max.message.bytes" -> max.toBytes.toString)
       } getOrElse Map.empty)
 
     val commonConfig = configMapToKafkaConfig(loadConfigOrThrow[Map[String, String]](ConfigKeys.kafkaCommon))
diff --git a/common/scala/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/connector/kafka/KafkaProducerConnector.scala b/common/scala/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/connector/kafka/KafkaProducerConnector.scala
index 3c4a410d0fb..3cb8d52979e 100644
--- a/common/scala/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/connector/kafka/KafkaProducerConnector.scala
+++ b/common/scala/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/connector/kafka/KafkaProducerConnector.scala
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ class KafkaProducerConnector(
       configMapToKafkaConfig(loadConfigOrThrow[Map[String, String]](ConfigKeys.kafkaCommon)) ++
       configMapToKafkaConfig(loadConfigOrThrow[Map[String, String]](ConfigKeys.kafkaProducer)) ++
       (maxRequestSize map { max =>
-        Map("max.request.size" -> max.size.toString)
+        Map("max.request.size" -> max.toBytes.toString)
       } getOrElse Map.empty)
 
     verifyConfig(config, ProducerConfig.configNames().asScala.toSet)