diff --git a/tools/debug/core/error_ref_leak.py b/tools/debug/core/error_ref_leak.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6582328a5b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/debug/core/error_ref_leak.py
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python2.7
+#
+# Copyright 2017 gRPC authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# Reads stdin to find error_refcount log lines, and prints reference leaks
+# to stdout
+
+# usege: python error_ref_leak < logfile.txt
+
+import sys
+import re
+
+data = sys.stdin.readlines()
+
+errs = []
+for line in data:
+  # if we care about the line
+  if re.search(r'error.cc', line):
+    # str manip to cut off left part of log line
+    line = line.partition('error.cc:')[-1]
+    line = re.sub(r'\d+] ', r'', line)
+    line = line.strip().split()
+    err = line[0].strip(":")
+    if line[1] == "create":
+      assert(err not in errs)
+      errs.append(err)
+    elif line[0] == "realloc":
+      errs.remove(line[1])
+      errs.append(line[3])
+    # explicitly look for the last dereference 
+    elif line[1] == "1" and line[3] == "0":
+      assert(err in errs)
+      errs.remove(err)
+
+print "leaked:", errs