diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9e777b1f..da1e8f0e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - `add_to_ignore` failed on files without a newline at EOF ([#191](https://github.com/extrawurst/gitui/issues/191))
 - new tags were not picked up in revlog view ([#190](https://github.com/extrawurst/gitui/issues/190))
 - tags not shown in commit details popup ([#193](https://github.com/extrawurst/gitui/issues/193))
+- min size for relative popups on small terminals ([#179](https://github.com/extrawurst/gitui/issues/179))
 
 ## [0.8.1] - 2020-07-07
 
diff --git a/src/components/filetree.rs b/src/components/filetree.rs
index 1f46f906..b7c77c23 100644
--- a/src/components/filetree.rs
+++ b/src/components/filetree.rs
@@ -16,8 +16,7 @@ use crate::{
 use anyhow::Result;
 use asyncgit::{hash, StatusItem, StatusItemType};
 use crossterm::event::Event;
-use std::cell::Cell;
-use std::{borrow::Cow, convert::From, path::Path};
+use std::{borrow::Cow, cell::Cell, convert::From, path::Path};
 use tui::{backend::Backend, layout::Rect, widgets::Text, Frame};
 
 ///
diff --git a/src/components/textinput.rs b/src/components/textinput.rs
index d5de6b2c..67c8b98f 100644
--- a/src/components/textinput.rs
+++ b/src/components/textinput.rs
@@ -170,6 +170,8 @@ impl DrawableComponent for TextInputComponent {
             };
 
             let area = ui::centered_rect(60, 20, f.size());
+            let area = ui::rect_min(10, 3, area);
+
             f.render_widget(Clear, area);
             f.render_widget(
                 popup_paragraph(
diff --git a/src/ui/mod.rs b/src/ui/mod.rs
index 26721ffe..5c8ad32a 100644
--- a/src/ui/mod.rs
+++ b/src/ui/mod.rs
@@ -57,6 +57,21 @@ pub fn centered_rect(
         .split(popup_layout[1])[1]
 }
 
+/// makes sure Rect `r` at least stays as big as `width`/`height`
+pub fn rect_min(width: u16, height: u16, r: Rect) -> Rect {
+    let new_width = r.width.max(width);
+    let new_height = r.height.max(height);
+    let diff_width = new_width.saturating_sub(r.width);
+    let diff_height = new_height.saturating_sub(r.height);
+
+    Rect::new(
+        r.x.saturating_sub(diff_width / 2),
+        r.y.saturating_sub(diff_height / 2),
+        new_width,
+        new_height,
+    )
+}
+
 pub fn centered_rect_absolute(
     width: u16,
     height: u16,