diff --git a/src/compute_rdf.cpp b/src/compute_rdf.cpp
index 17fe450fe5..f31c3c5743 100644
--- a/src/compute_rdf.cpp
+++ b/src/compute_rdf.cpp
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ ComputeRDF::ComputeRDF(LAMMPS *lmp, int narg, char **arg) :
   while (iarg < narg) {
     if (strcmp(arg[iarg],"cutoff") == 0) {
       if (iarg+2 > narg) error->all(FLERR,"Illegal compute rdf command");
+      if ((neighbor->style == Neighbor::MULTI) || (neighbor->style == Neighbor::MULTI_OLD))
+        error->all(FLERR, "Compute rdf with custom cutoff requires neighbor style 'bin' or 'nsq'");
       cutoff_user = utils::numeric(FLERR,arg[iarg+1],false,lmp);
       if (cutoff_user <= 0.0) cutflag = 0;
       else cutflag = 1;