diff --git a/docs/library/esp32.rst b/docs/library/esp32.rst
index 5df1f3c93..bfef5a32d 100644
--- a/docs/library/esp32.rst
+++ b/docs/library/esp32.rst
@@ -38,6 +38,30 @@ Functions
 
     Read the raw value of the internal Hall sensor, returning an integer.
 
+.. function:: idf_heap_info(capabilities)
+
+    Returns information about the ESP-IDF heap memory regions. One of them contains
+    the MicroPython heap and the others are used by ESP-IDF, e.g., for network
+    buffers and other data. This data is useful to get a sense of how much memory
+    is available to ESP-IDF and the networking stack in particular. It may shed
+    some light on situations where ESP-IDF operations fail due to allocation failures.
+    The information returned is *not* useful to troubleshoot Python allocation failures,
+    use `micropython.mem_info()` instead.
+
+    The capabilities parameter corresponds to ESP-IDF's ``MALLOC_CAP_XXX`` values but the
+    two most useful ones are predefined as `esp32.HEAP_DATA` for data heap regions and
+    `esp32.HEAP_EXEC` for executable regions as used by the native code emitter.
+
+    The return value is a list of 4-tuples, where each 4-tuple corresponds to one heap
+    and contains: the total bytes, the free bytes, the largest free block, and
+    the minimum free seen over time.
+
+    Example after booting::
+
+        >>> import esp32; esp32.idf_heap_info(esp32.HEAP_DATA)
+        [(240, 0, 0, 0), (7288, 0, 0, 0), (16648, 4, 4, 4), (79912, 35712, 35512, 35108),
+         (15072, 15036, 15036, 15036), (113840, 0, 0, 0)]
+
 Flash partitions
 ----------------
 
@@ -88,6 +112,10 @@ Constants
 
     Used in `Partition.find` to specify the partition type.
 
+.. data:: HEAP_DATA
+          HEAP_EXEC
+
+    Used in `idf_heap_info`.
 
 .. _esp32.RMT:
 
diff --git a/ports/esp32/modesp32.c b/ports/esp32/modesp32.c
index 0ce3b957b..9554dbd69 100644
--- a/ports/esp32/modesp32.c
+++ b/ports/esp32/modesp32.c
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@
 #include "soc/sens_reg.h"
 #include "driver/gpio.h"
 #include "driver/adc.h"
+#include "esp_heap_caps.h"
+#include "multi_heap.h"
+#include "../heap_private.h"
 
 #include "py/nlr.h"
 #include "py/obj.h"
@@ -145,6 +148,28 @@ STATIC mp_obj_t esp32_hall_sensor(void) {
 }
 STATIC MP_DEFINE_CONST_FUN_OBJ_0(esp32_hall_sensor_obj, esp32_hall_sensor);
 
+STATIC mp_obj_t esp32_idf_heap_info(const mp_obj_t cap_in) {
+    mp_int_t cap = mp_obj_get_int(cap_in);
+    multi_heap_info_t info;
+    heap_t *heap;
+    mp_obj_t heap_list = mp_obj_new_list(0, 0);
+    SLIST_FOREACH(heap, &registered_heaps, next) {
+        if (heap_caps_match(heap, cap)) {
+            multi_heap_get_info(heap->heap, &info);
+            mp_obj_t data[] = {
+                MP_OBJ_NEW_SMALL_INT(heap->end - heap->start), // total heap size
+                MP_OBJ_NEW_SMALL_INT(info.total_free_bytes),   // total free bytes
+                MP_OBJ_NEW_SMALL_INT(info.largest_free_block), // largest free contiguous
+                MP_OBJ_NEW_SMALL_INT(info.minimum_free_bytes), // minimum free seen
+            };
+            mp_obj_t this_heap = mp_obj_new_tuple(4, data);
+            mp_obj_list_append(heap_list, this_heap);
+        }
+    }
+    return heap_list;
+}
+STATIC MP_DEFINE_CONST_FUN_OBJ_1(esp32_idf_heap_info_obj, esp32_idf_heap_info);
+
 STATIC const mp_rom_map_elem_t esp32_module_globals_table[] = {
     { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR___name__), MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_esp32) },
 
@@ -153,6 +178,7 @@ STATIC const mp_rom_map_elem_t esp32_module_globals_table[] = {
     { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_wake_on_ext1), MP_ROM_PTR(&esp32_wake_on_ext1_obj) },
     { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_raw_temperature), MP_ROM_PTR(&esp32_raw_temperature_obj) },
     { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_hall_sensor), MP_ROM_PTR(&esp32_hall_sensor_obj) },
+    { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_idf_heap_info), MP_ROM_PTR(&esp32_idf_heap_info_obj) },
 
     { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_Partition), MP_ROM_PTR(&esp32_partition_type) },
     { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_RMT), MP_ROM_PTR(&esp32_rmt_type) },
@@ -160,6 +186,9 @@ STATIC const mp_rom_map_elem_t esp32_module_globals_table[] = {
 
     { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_WAKEUP_ALL_LOW), MP_ROM_FALSE },
     { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_WAKEUP_ANY_HIGH), MP_ROM_TRUE },
+
+    { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_HEAP_DATA), MP_ROM_INT(MALLOC_CAP_8BIT) },
+    { MP_ROM_QSTR(MP_QSTR_HEAP_EXEC), MP_ROM_INT(MALLOC_CAP_EXEC) },
 };
 
 STATIC MP_DEFINE_CONST_DICT(esp32_module_globals, esp32_module_globals_table);
diff --git a/tests/esp32/esp32_idf_heap_info.py b/tests/esp32/esp32_idf_heap_info.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f141ae07b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/esp32/esp32_idf_heap_info.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# Test the esp32's esp32.idf_heap_info to return sane data
+try:
+    import esp32
+except ImportError:
+    print("SKIP")
+    raise SystemExit
+
+# region tuple is: (size, free, largest free, min free)
+# we check that each region's size is > 0 and that the free amounts are smaller than the size
+def chk_heap(kind, regions):
+    chk = [True, True, True, True]
+    for r in regions:
+        chk = [
+            chk[0] and r[0] > 0,
+            chk[1] and r[1] <= r[0],
+            chk[2] and r[2] <= r[0],
+            chk[3] and r[3] <= r[0],
+        ]
+    print(kind, chk)
+
+
+# try getting heap regions
+regions = esp32.idf_heap_info(esp32.HEAP_DATA)
+print("HEAP_DATA >2:", len(regions) > 2)
+chk_heap("HEAP_DATA", regions)
+
+# try getting code regions
+regions = esp32.idf_heap_info(esp32.HEAP_EXEC)
+print("HEAP_EXEC >2:", len(regions) > 2)
+chk_heap("HEAP_EXEC", regions)
+
+# try invalid param
+print(esp32.idf_heap_info(-1))
diff --git a/tests/esp32/esp32_idf_heap_info.py.exp b/tests/esp32/esp32_idf_heap_info.py.exp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2b63bf325
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/esp32/esp32_idf_heap_info.py.exp
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+HEAP_DATA >2: True
+HEAP_DATA [True, True, True, True]
+HEAP_EXEC >2: True
+HEAP_EXEC [True, True, True, True]
+[]