diff --git a/include/asterisk/json.h b/include/asterisk/json.h
index 0a75e7838e..665380c760 100644
--- a/include/asterisk/json.h
+++ b/include/asterisk/json.h
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ typedef AST_JSON_INT_T ast_json_int_t;
 /*!
  * \brief Initialize the JSON library.
  */
-void ast_json_init(void);
+int ast_json_init(void);
 
 /*!
  * \brief Set custom allocators instead of the standard ast_malloc() and ast_free().
diff --git a/main/asterisk.c b/main/asterisk.c
index 36e956fd06..6d9a5f56ca 100644
--- a/main/asterisk.c
+++ b/main/asterisk.c
@@ -4059,7 +4059,7 @@ static void asterisk_daemon(int isroot, const char *runuser, const char *rungrou
 	}
 	ast_verb(0, "PBX UUID: %s\n", pbx_uuid);
 
-	ast_json_init();
+	check_init(ast_json_init(), "libjansson");
 	ast_ulaw_init();
 	ast_alaw_init();
 	tdd_init();
diff --git a/main/json.c b/main/json.c
index 9a94767c23..f72de41020 100644
--- a/main/json.c
+++ b/main/json.c
@@ -693,10 +693,28 @@ struct ast_json *ast_json_ipaddr(const struct ast_sockaddr *addr, enum ast_trans
 	return ast_json_string_create(ast_str_buffer(string));
 }
 
-void ast_json_init(void)
+int ast_json_init(void)
 {
+	json_t *version_check;
+
 	/* Setup to use Asterisk custom allocators */
 	ast_json_reset_alloc_funcs();
+
+	/* We depend on functionality of jansson-2.11 but don't actually use
+	 * any symbols.  If we link at runtime to less than 2.11 this json_pack
+	 * will return NULL. */
+	version_check = json_pack("{s: o?, s: o*}",
+		"JSON", NULL,
+		"Bourne", NULL);
+	if (!version_check) {
+		ast_log(LOG_ERROR, "There was a problem finding jansson 2.11 runtime libraries.\n"
+			"Please rebuild Asterisk using ./configure --with-jansson-bundled.\n");
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	json_decref(version_check);
+
+	return 0;
 }
 
 static void json_payload_destructor(void *obj)