diff --git a/include/boost/histogram/algorithm/reduce.hpp b/include/boost/histogram/algorithm/reduce.hpp
index c342d6aa..8d007529 100644
--- a/include/boost/histogram/algorithm/reduce.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/histogram/algorithm/reduce.hpp
@@ -405,6 +405,9 @@ Histogram reduce(const Histogram& hist, const Iterable& options) {
   auto result =
       Histogram(std::move(axes), detail::make_default(unsafe_access::storage(hist)));
 
+  for (auto& o : opts)
+    o.reduced_end = (o.end.index - o.begin.index) / static_cast<index_type>(o.merge);
+
   auto idx = detail::make_stack_buffer<index_type>(unsafe_access::axes(result));
   for (auto&& x : indexed(hist, coverage::all)) {
     auto i = idx.begin();
@@ -417,14 +420,12 @@ Histogram reduce(const Histogram& hist, const Iterable& options) {
         *i = -1;
         if (!o->use_underflow_bin) skip = true;
       } else {
-        if (*i >= 0)
+        if (*i < 0)
+          *i = o->reduced_end;
+        else if (o->merge > 1)
           *i /= static_cast<index_type>(o->merge);
-        else
-          *i = o->end.index;
-        const auto reduced_axis_end =
-            (o->end.index - o->begin.index) / static_cast<index_type>(o->merge);
-        if (*i >= reduced_axis_end) {
-          *i = reduced_axis_end;
+        if (*i >= o->reduced_end) {
+          *i = o->reduced_end;
           if (!o->use_overflow_bin) skip = true;
         }
       }
diff --git a/include/boost/histogram/detail/reduce_command.hpp b/include/boost/histogram/detail/reduce_command.hpp
index 3fb67b50..037b28f1 100644
--- a/include/boost/histogram/detail/reduce_command.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/histogram/detail/reduce_command.hpp
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ struct reduce_command {
   unsigned merge = 0; // default value indicates unset option
   bool crop = false;
   // for internal use by the reduce algorithm
+  axis::index_type reduced_end = 0; // (end - begin) / merge
   bool is_ordered = true;
   bool use_underflow_bin = true;
   bool use_overflow_bin = true;