Systems and methods for free memory hinting by virtual machines. An example method comprises: identifying, by a virtual machine running on a host computer system, a first memory page referenced by a free memory list maintained by the virtual machine; identifying a second memory page residing in a hinting buffer associated with the virtual machine; moving the second memory page to the free memory list; disassociating the first memory page from the free memory list; and notifying the host computer system of an identifier of the first memory page.