diff --git a/pyopencl/cffi_cl.py b/pyopencl/cffi_cl.py
index 3c4a448481ec451318c70b9624b1fa1fa0d435a9..c1848a1e1d1b9b77ba20ef519b3acbe59932451d 100644
--- a/pyopencl/cffi_cl.py
+++ b/pyopencl/cffi_cl.py
@@ -575,6 +575,14 @@ class Error(Exception):
     def what(self):
         return self.args[0].what()
 
+    def is_out_of_memory(self):
+        # matches C implementation in src/c_wrapper/error.h
+        val = self.args[0]
+
+        return (val.code == status_code.MEM_OBJECT_ALLOCATION_FAILURE
+                or val.code == status_code.OUT_OF_RESOURCES
+                or val.code == status_code.OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY)
+
 
 class MemoryError(Error):
     pass
diff --git a/src/c_wrapper/error.h b/src/c_wrapper/error.h
index 0346fcd63def77a08cff6232df001eb21c2bc7e1..33f2ae76e62f9b93ab0d8fbb0633104db820f93f 100644
--- a/src/c_wrapper/error.h
+++ b/src/c_wrapper/error.h
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ public:
     PYOPENCL_INLINE bool
     is_out_of_memory() const
     {
+        // matches Python implementation in pyopencl/cffi_cl.py
         return (code() == CL_MEM_OBJECT_ALLOCATION_FAILURE ||
                 code() == CL_OUT_OF_RESOURCES ||
                 code() == CL_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY);