diff --git a/esphome/components/syslog/esphome_syslog.cpp b/esphome/components/syslog/esphome_syslog.cpp
index a40829f3153..e9149e0dae1 100644
--- a/esphome/components/syslog/esphome_syslog.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/syslog/esphome_syslog.cpp
@@ -2,12 +2,13 @@
 
 #include "esphome/components/logger/logger.h"
 #include "esphome/core/application.h"
+#include "esphome/core/hal.h"
 #include "esphome/core/time.h"
 
 namespace esphome::syslog {
 
 // Map log levels to syslog severity using an array, indexed by ESPHome log level (1-7)
-constexpr int LOG_LEVEL_TO_SYSLOG_SEVERITY[] = {
+static constexpr uint8_t LOG_LEVEL_TO_SYSLOG_SEVERITY[] PROGMEM = {
     3,  // NONE
     3,  // ERROR
     4,  // WARN
@@ -35,7 +36,7 @@ void Syslog::log_(const int level, const char *tag, const char *message, size_t
   // Syslog PRI calculation: facility * 8 + severity
   int severity = 7;
   if ((unsigned) level <= 7) {
-    severity = LOG_LEVEL_TO_SYSLOG_SEVERITY[level];
+    severity = progmem_read_byte(&LOG_LEVEL_TO_SYSLOG_SEVERITY[level]);
   }
   int pri = this->facility_ * 8 + severity;