diff --git a/lib/onebox/helpers.rb b/lib/onebox/helpers.rb
index 3d2ee7013a0..ab807a875c3 100644
--- a/lib/onebox/helpers.rb
+++ b/lib/onebox/helpers.rb
@@ -13,15 +13,20 @@ module Onebox
       html.gsub(/<[^>]+>/, " ").gsub(/\n/, "")
     end
 
+    # Fetches the HTML response body for a URL.
+    #
+    # Note that the size of the response body is capped at `Onebox.options.max_download_kb`. When the limit has been reached,
+    # this method will return the response body that has been downloaded up to the limit.
     def self.fetch_html_doc(url, headers = nil, body_cacher = nil)
       response =
         (
           begin
-            fetch_response(url, headers: headers, body_cacher: body_cacher)
+            fetch_response(url, headers:, body_cacher:, raise_error_when_response_too_large: false)
           rescue StandardError
             nil
           end
         )
+
       doc = Nokogiri.HTML(response)
       uri = Addressable::URI.parse(url)
 
@@ -45,7 +50,12 @@ module Onebox
             response =
               (
                 begin
-                  fetch_response(uri.to_s, headers: headers, body_cacher: body_cacher)
+                  fetch_response(
+                    uri.to_s,
+                    headers:,
+                    body_cacher:,
+                    raise_error_when_response_too_large: false,
+                  )
                 rescue StandardError
                   nil
                 end
@@ -63,7 +73,8 @@ module Onebox
       redirect_limit: 5,
       domain: nil,
       headers: nil,
-      body_cacher: nil
+      body_cacher: nil,
+      raise_error_when_response_too_large: true
     )
       redirect_limit = Onebox.options.redirect_limit if redirect_limit >
         Onebox.options.redirect_limit
@@ -125,7 +136,11 @@ module Onebox
 
           response.read_body do |chunk|
             result.write(chunk)
-            raise DownloadTooLarge.new if result.size > size_bytes
+
+            if result.size > size_bytes
+              raise_error_when_response_too_large ? raise(DownloadTooLarge.new) : break
+            end
+
             raise Timeout::Error.new if (Time.now - start_time) > Onebox.options.timeout
           end
 
diff --git a/spec/lib/onebox/helpers_spec.rb b/spec/lib/onebox/helpers_spec.rb
index 195b24ec5f3..139d422aec4 100644
--- a/spec/lib/onebox/helpers_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/onebox/helpers_spec.rb
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ RSpec.describe Onebox::Helpers do
     around do |example|
       previous_options = Onebox.options.to_h
       Onebox.options = { max_download_kb: 1 }
+
       stub_request(:get, "http://example.com/large-file").to_return(
         status: 200,
         body: onebox_response("slides"),
@@ -32,6 +33,15 @@ RSpec.describe Onebox::Helpers do
       )
     end
 
+    it "returns the body of the response when size of response body exceeds the limit and `raise_error_when_response_too_large` has been set to `false`" do
+      expect(
+        described_class.fetch_response(
+          "http://example.com/large-file",
+          raise_error_when_response_too_large: false,
+        ),
+      ).to eq(onebox_response("slides"))
+    end
+
     it "raises an exception when private url requested" do
       FinalDestination::TestHelper.stub_to_fail do
         expect { described_class.fetch_response("http://example.com/large-file") }.to raise_error(
@@ -49,6 +59,22 @@ RSpec.describe Onebox::Helpers do
       expect(described_class.fetch_html_doc(uri).to_s).to match("success")
     end
 
+    it "does not raise an error when response body exceeds Onebox's `max_download_kb` limit" do
+      previous_options = Onebox.options.to_h
+      Onebox.options = previous_options.merge(max_download_kb: 1)
+
+      stub_request(:get, "http://example.com/large-file").to_return(
+        status: 200,
+        body: onebox_response("slides"),
+      )
+
+      expect(described_class.fetch_html_doc("http://example.com/large-file").to_s).to include(
+        "ECMAScript 2015 by David Leonard",
+      )
+    ensure
+      Onebox.options = previous_options
+    end
+
     context "with canonical link" do
       it "follows canonical link" do
         uri = "https://www.example.com"