diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7c235b432c..5118ce8eab 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,6 +18,11 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Fixed bugs
 
+* The `snapshot.max-new-file-size` option can now handle raw integer literals,
+  interpreted as a number of bytes, where previously it could only handle string
+  literals. This means that `snapshot.max-new-file-size="1"` and
+  `snapshot.max-new-file-size=1` are now equivalent.
+
 ## [0.16.0] - 2024-04-03
 
 ### Deprecations
diff --git a/cli/tests/test_working_copy.rs b/cli/tests/test_working_copy.rs
index e54437b28b..461125b7f6 100644
--- a/cli/tests/test_working_copy.rs
+++ b/cli/tests/test_working_copy.rs
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ fn test_snapshot_large_file() {
     test_env.jj_cmd_ok(test_env.env_root(), &["init", "repo", "--git"]);
     let repo_path = test_env.env_root().join("repo");
 
-    test_env.add_config(r#"snapshot.max-new-file-size = "10""#);
+    test_env.add_config(r#"snapshot.max-new-file-size = 10"#);
     std::fs::write(repo_path.join("large"), "a lot of text").unwrap();
     let stderr = test_env.jj_cmd_failure(&repo_path, &["files"]);
     insta::assert_snapshot!(stderr, @r###"
diff --git a/lib/src/settings.rs b/lib/src/settings.rs
index 1eb572469b..380b305b45 100644
--- a/lib/src/settings.rs
+++ b/lib/src/settings.rs
@@ -331,7 +331,8 @@ impl<T> ConfigResultExt<T> for Result<T, config::ConfigError> {
 }
 
 /// A size in bytes optionally formatted/serialized with binary prefixes
-#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone, Eq, PartialEq, Ord, PartialOrd)]
+#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone, Eq, PartialEq, Ord, PartialOrd, serde::Deserialize)]
+#[serde(try_from = "String")]
 pub struct HumanByteSize(pub u64);
 
 impl std::fmt::Display for HumanByteSize {
@@ -341,43 +342,18 @@ impl std::fmt::Display for HumanByteSize {
     }
 }
 
-impl<'de> serde::Deserialize<'de> for HumanByteSize {
-    fn deserialize<D>(deserializer: D) -> Result<Self, D::Error>
-    where
-        D: serde::Deserializer<'de>,
-    {
-        use serde::de::Error;
+impl TryFrom<String> for HumanByteSize {
+    type Error = String;
 
-        struct Visitor;
-
-        impl<'de> serde::de::Visitor<'de> for Visitor {
-            type Value = HumanByteSize;
-
-            fn expecting(&self, formatter: &mut std::fmt::Formatter) -> std::fmt::Result {
-                write!(formatter, "a size in bytes with an optional binary unit")
-            }
-
-            fn visit_u64<E>(self, v: u64) -> Result<Self::Value, E>
-            where
-                E: Error,
-            {
-                Ok(HumanByteSize(v))
-            }
-
-            fn visit_str<E>(self, v: &str) -> Result<Self::Value, E>
-            where
-                E: Error,
-            {
-                let bytes = parse_human_byte_size(v).map_err(Error::custom)?;
+    fn try_from(value: String) -> Result<Self, Self::Error> {
+        let res = value.parse::<u64>();
+        match res {
+            Ok(bytes) => Ok(HumanByteSize(bytes)),
+            Err(_) => {
+                let bytes = parse_human_byte_size(&value)?;
                 Ok(HumanByteSize(bytes))
             }
         }
-
-        if deserializer.is_human_readable() {
-            deserializer.deserialize_any(Visitor)
-        } else {
-            deserializer.deserialize_u64(Visitor)
-        }
     }
 }