diff --git a/src/bigint.cpp b/src/bigint.cpp
index bf18b9a1bf..2737057f97 100644
--- a/src/bigint.cpp
+++ b/src/bigint.cpp
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ size_t bigint_bits_needed(const BigInt *op) {
     size_t full_bits = op->digit_count * 64;
     size_t leading_zero_count = bigint_clz(op, full_bits);
     size_t bits_needed = full_bits - leading_zero_count;
-    return bits_needed + op->is_negative;
+    return bits_needed;
 }
 
 static void to_twos_complement(BigInt *dest, const BigInt *op, size_t bit_count) {
diff --git a/test/cases/eval.zig b/test/cases/eval.zig
index e0c998e961..08c02f1843 100644
--- a/test/cases/eval.zig
+++ b/test/cases/eval.zig
@@ -737,3 +737,16 @@ test "slice bounds in comptime concatenation" {
     assert(str2.len == 1);
     assert(std.mem.eql(u8, str2, "1"));
 }
+
+test "comptime bitwise operators" {
+    comptime {
+        assert(3 & 1 == 1);
+        assert(3 & -1 == 3);
+        assert(-3 & -1 == -3);
+        assert(3 | -1 == -1);
+        assert(-3 | -1 == -1);
+        assert(3 ^ -1 == -4);
+        assert(~i8(-1) == 0);
+        assert(~i128(-1) == 0);
+    }
+}