diff --git a/lib/dictBuilder/cover.c b/lib/dictBuilder/cover.c
index 07fedc2d..3770c2ca 100644
--- a/lib/dictBuilder/cover.c
+++ b/lib/dictBuilder/cover.c
@@ -888,7 +888,7 @@ static void COVER_tryParameters(void *opaque) {
       goto _compressCleanup;
     }
     /* Compress each sample and sum their sizes (or error) */
-    totalCompressedSize = 0;
+    totalCompressedSize = dictBufferCapacity;
     for (i = 0; i < ctx->nbSamples; ++i) {
       const size_t size = ZSTD_compress_usingCDict(
           cctx, dst, dstCapacity, ctx->samples + ctx->offsets[i],