diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrix.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrix.scala
index 56caeac05c0c1..43f48befd014f 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrix.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrix.scala
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import breeze.numerics.{sqrt => brzSqrt}
 
 import org.apache.spark.annotation.Since
 import org.apache.spark.internal.Logging
+import org.apache.spark.internal.config.MAX_RESULT_SIZE
 import org.apache.spark.mllib.linalg._
 import org.apache.spark.mllib.stat.{MultivariateOnlineSummarizer, MultivariateStatisticalSummary}
 import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD
@@ -117,6 +118,7 @@ class RowMatrix @Since("1.0.0") (
     // Computes n*(n+1)/2, avoiding overflow in the multiplication.
     // This succeeds when n <= 65535, which is checked above
     val nt = if (n % 2 == 0) ((n / 2) * (n + 1)) else (n * ((n + 1) / 2))
+    val gramianSizeInBytes = nt * 8L
 
     // Compute the upper triangular part of the gram matrix.
     val GU = rows.treeAggregate(null.asInstanceOf[BDV[Double]])(
@@ -136,7 +138,8 @@ class RowMatrix @Since("1.0.0") (
           U1
         } else {
           U1 += U2
-        }
+        },
+      depth = getTreeAggregateIdealDepth(gramianSizeInBytes)
     )
 
     RowMatrix.triuToFull(n, GU.data)
@@ -775,6 +778,35 @@ class RowMatrix @Since("1.0.0") (
         s"The number of rows $m is different from what specified or previously computed: ${nRows}.")
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Computing desired tree aggregate depth necessary to avoid exceeding
+   * driver.MaxResultSize during aggregation.
+   * Based on the formulae: (numPartitions)^(1/depth) * objectSize <= DriverMaxResultSize
+   * @param aggregatedObjectSizeInBytes the size, in megabytes, of the object being tree aggregated
+   */
+  private[spark] def getTreeAggregateIdealDepth(aggregatedObjectSizeInBytes: Long) = {
+    require(aggregatedObjectSizeInBytes > 0,
+      "Cannot compute aggregate depth heuristic based on a zero-size object to aggregate")
+
+    val maxDriverResultSizeInBytes = rows.conf.get[Long](MAX_RESULT_SIZE)
+
+    require(maxDriverResultSizeInBytes > aggregatedObjectSizeInBytes,
+      s"Cannot aggregate object of size $aggregatedObjectSizeInBytes Bytes, "
+        + s"as it's bigger than maxResultSize ($maxDriverResultSizeInBytes Bytes)")
+
+    val numerator = math.log(rows.getNumPartitions)
+    val denominator = math.log(maxDriverResultSizeInBytes) - math.log(aggregatedObjectSizeInBytes)
+    val desiredTreeDepth = math.ceil(numerator / denominator)
+
+    if (desiredTreeDepth > 4) {
+      logWarning(
+        s"Desired tree depth for treeAggregation is big ($desiredTreeDepth)."
+          + "Consider increasing driver max result size or reducing number of partitions")
+    }
+
+    math.min(math.max(1, desiredTreeDepth), 10).toInt
+  }
 }
 
 @Since("1.0.0")
diff --git a/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrixSuite.scala b/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrixSuite.scala
index a4ca4f0a80faa..a0c4c68243e67 100644
--- a/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrixSuite.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrixSuite.scala
@@ -101,6 +101,26 @@ class RowMatrixSuite extends SparkFunSuite with MLlibTestSparkContext {
     }
   }
 
+  test("getTreeAggregateIdealDepth") {
+    val nbPartitions = 100
+    val vectors = sc.emptyRDD[Vector]
+      .repartition(nbPartitions)
+    val rowMat = new RowMatrix(vectors)
+
+    assert(rowMat.getTreeAggregateIdealDepth(100 * 1024 * 1024) === 2)
+    assert(rowMat.getTreeAggregateIdealDepth(110 * 1024 * 1024) === 3)
+    assert(rowMat.getTreeAggregateIdealDepth(700 * 1024 * 1024) === 10)
+
+    val zeroSizeException = intercept[Exception]{
+      rowMat.getTreeAggregateIdealDepth(0)
+    }
+    assert(zeroSizeException.getMessage.contains("zero-size object to aggregate"))
+    val objectBiggerThanResultSize = intercept[Exception]{
+      rowMat.getTreeAggregateIdealDepth(1100 * 1024 * 1024)
+    }
+    assert(objectBiggerThanResultSize.getMessage.contains("it's bigger than maxResultSize"))
+  }
+
   test("similar columns") {
     val colMags = Vectors.dense(math.sqrt(126), math.sqrt(66), math.sqrt(94))
     val expected = BDM(