diff --git a/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvencoder.cpp b/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvencoder.cpp
index 0d1bbde4f4..b1acbb0155 100644
--- a/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvencoder.cpp
+++ b/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvencoder.cpp
@@ -2212,6 +2212,8 @@ gst_nv_encoder_handle_frame (GstVideoEncoder * encoder,
     GST_INFO_OBJECT (self, "Last flow was %s",
         gst_flow_get_name (priv->last_flow));
     gst_video_encoder_release_frame (encoder, frame);
+    if (task)
+      gst_nv_enc_task_unref (task);
 
     return priv->last_flow;
   }