diff --git a/cmd/swarm/swarm-smoke-pss/main.go b/cmd/swarm/swarm-smoke-pss/main.go
index 16143a22be..edb25b4228 100644
--- a/cmd/swarm/swarm-smoke-pss/main.go
+++ b/cmd/swarm/swarm-smoke-pss/main.go
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package main
 import (
 	"os"
 	"sort"
+	"strconv"
 
 	"github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/cmd/utils"
 	gethmetrics "github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/metrics"
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@ var (
 	verbosity       int
 	timeout         int
 	pssMessageCount int
+	pssMessageSize  int
 )
 
 func main() {
@@ -84,11 +86,17 @@ func main() {
 			Destination: &timeout,
 		},
 		cli.IntFlag{
-			Name:        "pss-messages",
+			Name:        "msgcount",
 			Value:       10,
 			Usage:       "number of pss messages that should be send in the pss smoke test",
 			Destination: &pssMessageCount,
 		},
+		cli.IntFlag{
+			Name:        "msgbytes",
+			Value:       128,
+			Usage:       "size of a randomly generated message. defined in bytes",
+			Destination: &pssMessageSize,
+		},
 	}
 
 	app.Flags = append(app.Flags, []cli.Flag{
@@ -154,6 +162,7 @@ func emitMetrics(ctx *cli.Context) error {
 
 		tagsMap := utils.SplitTagsFlag(tags)
 		tagsMap["version"] = gitCommit
+		tagsMap["msgbytes"] = strconv.Itoa(pssMessageSize)
 
 		return influxdb.InfluxDBWithTagsOnce(gethmetrics.DefaultRegistry, endpoint, database, username, password, "swarm-smoke-pss.", tagsMap)
 	}
diff --git a/cmd/swarm/swarm-smoke-pss/pss.go b/cmd/swarm/swarm-smoke-pss/pss.go
index ed0eda6932..59fc54ac5e 100644
--- a/cmd/swarm/swarm-smoke-pss/pss.go
+++ b/cmd/swarm/swarm-smoke-pss/pss.go
@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ func (s *pssSession) genJob(mode pssMode) pssJob {
 	log.Trace("recv node", "pss_baseAddr", hexutil.Encode(recvNode.addr), "host", hosts[recvNodeIdx])
 
 	// create new message and add it to job index to check for receives
-	randomMsg := testutil.RandomBytes(seed, 128)
+	randomMsg := testutil.RandomBytes(seed, pssMessageSize)
 	// change seed so that the next random message is different
 	seed = seed + 1