diff --git a/src/core/support/file_posix.c b/src/core/support/file_posix.c
index 21a985012eb..cb48b3d52f4 100644
--- a/src/core/support/file_posix.c
+++ b/src/core/support/file_posix.c
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ FILE *gpr_tmpfile(const char *prefix, char **tmp_filename) {
 
   if (tmp_filename != NULL) *tmp_filename = NULL;
 
-  gpr_asprintf(&template, "%s_XXXXXX", prefix);
+  gpr_asprintf(&template, "/tmp/%s_XXXXXX", prefix);
   GPR_ASSERT(template != NULL);
 
   fd = mkstemp(template);