diff --git a/docs/features/images.md b/docs/features/images.md
index 7cfc18459..d73724745 100644
--- a/docs/features/images.md
+++ b/docs/features/images.md
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ const container = await GenericContainer
   .build("my-custom-image", { deleteOnExit: false });
 ```
 
+If the build fails, the error includes the reason and the last lines of the build output.
+
 ### With buildkit
 
 ```js
diff --git a/packages/testcontainers/fixtures/docker/docker-with-failing-build/Dockerfile b/packages/testcontainers/fixtures/docker/docker-with-failing-build/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8feda2388
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/testcontainers/fixtures/docker/docker-with-failing-build/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+FROM alpine:3.10
+
+RUN cat /does-not-exist
diff --git a/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/build-output.test.ts b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/build-output.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4686ecb91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/build-output.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import { BuildOutput } from "./build-output";
+
+describe("BuildOutput", () => {
+  it("should not report a failure when the build has no error", () => {
+    const buildOutput = new BuildOutput();
+
+    buildOutput.add(JSON.stringify({ stream: "Step 1/1 : FROM alpine\n" }));
+
+    expect(buildOutput.getFailure()).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+
+  it("should report the error with the build output", () => {
+    const buildOutput = new BuildOutput();
+
+    buildOutput.add(JSON.stringify({ stream: "Step 1/1 : RUN cat /does-not-exist" }));
+    buildOutput.add(JSON.stringify({ stream: "\n" }));
+    buildOutput.add(JSON.stringify({ stream: "\u001b[91mcat: can't open '/does-not-exist'\n\u001b[0m" }));
+    buildOutput.add(JSON.stringify({ error: "exit code: 1", errorDetail: { message: "exit code: 1" } }));
+
+    expect(buildOutput.getFailure()).toBe(
+      "exit code: 1\n\nBuild output:\nStep 1/1 : RUN cat /does-not-exist\ncat: can't open '/does-not-exist'"
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("should only keep the last lines of the build output", () => {
+    const buildOutput = new BuildOutput();
+
+    for (let i = 1; i <= 120; i++) {
+      buildOutput.add(JSON.stringify({ stream: `line ${i}\n` }));
+    }
+    buildOutput.add(JSON.stringify({ error: "exit code: 1" }));
+
+    const failure = buildOutput.getFailure()?.split("\n");
+    expect(failure?.slice(0, 4)).toEqual(["exit code: 1", "", "Last 50 lines of build output:", "line 71"]);
+    expect(failure).toHaveLength(53);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/build-output.ts b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/build-output.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..004f859e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/build-output.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+import { stripVTControlCharacters } from "node:util";
+import { decodeBuildkitTrace } from "./buildkit-trace";
+
+const MAX_LINES = 50;
+
+type BuildEvent = {
+  stream?: unknown;
+  error?: unknown;
+  errorDetail?: { message?: unknown };
+  id?: unknown;
+  aux?: unknown;
+};
+
+export class BuildOutput {
+  private readonly lines: string[] = [];
+  private partialLine = "";
+  private truncated = false;
+  private error?: string;
+
+  public add(line: string): void {
+    const event = this.parse(line);
+    const error = event.errorDetail?.message ?? event.error;
+
+    if (typeof error === "string") {
+      this.error = error;
+    } else if (typeof event.stream === "string") {
+      this.append(event.stream);
+    } else if (event.id === "moby.buildkit.trace" && typeof event.aux === "string") {
+      this.append(decodeBuildkitTrace(event.aux));
+    }
+  }
+
+  public getFailure(): string | undefined {
+    if (this.error === undefined) {
+      return undefined;
+    }
+
+    this.append("\n");
+    if (this.lines.length === 0) {
+      return this.error;
+    }
+
+    const heading = this.truncated ? `Last ${MAX_LINES} lines of build output:` : "Build output:";
+    return [this.error, "", heading, ...this.lines].join("\n");
+  }
+
+  private parse(line: string): BuildEvent {
+    try {
+      return JSON.parse(line) ?? {};
+    } catch {
+      return {};
+    }
+  }
+
+  private append(text: string): void {
+    const lines = (this.partialLine + text).split("\n");
+    this.partialLine = lines.pop() ?? "";
+
+    for (const line of lines) {
+      const trimmedLine = stripVTControlCharacters(line).trimEnd();
+      if (trimmedLine.length > 0) {
+        this.lines.push(trimmedLine);
+      }
+    }
+
+    if (this.lines.length > MAX_LINES) {
+      this.lines.splice(0, this.lines.length - MAX_LINES);
+      this.truncated = true;
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/buildkit-trace.ts b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/buildkit-trace.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7f641f652
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/buildkit-trace.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+type Field = { number: number; value: number | Buffer };
+
+const STATUS_VERTEXES = 1;
+const STATUS_LOGS = 3;
+const VERTEX_NAME = 3;
+const VERTEX_STARTED = 5;
+const VERTEX_COMPLETED = 6;
+const VERTEX_LOG_MSG = 4;
+
+// BuildKit reports progress as base64 encoded protobuf StatusResponse messages:
+// https://github.com/moby/buildkit/blob/master/api/services/control/control.proto
+export function decodeBuildkitTrace(trace: string): string {
+  let output = "";
+
+  for (const status of readFields(Buffer.from(trace, "base64"))) {
+    if (!Buffer.isBuffer(status.value)) {
+      continue;
+    }
+    const fields = readFields(status.value);
+    const find = (number: number) => fields.find((field) => field.number === number)?.value;
+
+    if (status.number === STATUS_VERTEXES) {
+      const name = find(VERTEX_NAME);
+      if (Buffer.isBuffer(name) && find(VERTEX_STARTED) !== undefined && find(VERTEX_COMPLETED) === undefined) {
+        output += `${name.toString("utf-8")}\n`;
+      }
+    } else if (status.number === STATUS_LOGS) {
+      const msg = find(VERTEX_LOG_MSG);
+      if (Buffer.isBuffer(msg)) {
+        output += msg.toString("utf-8");
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  return output;
+}
+
+function readFields(buffer: Buffer): Field[] {
+  const fields: Field[] = [];
+  let offset = 0;
+
+  const readVarint = () => {
+    let value = 0;
+    let multiplier = 1;
+    while (offset < buffer.length) {
+      const byte = buffer[offset++];
+      value += (byte & 0x7f) * multiplier;
+      multiplier *= 0x80;
+      if ((byte & 0x80) === 0) {
+        break;
+      }
+    }
+    return value;
+  };
+
+  while (offset < buffer.length) {
+    const tag = readVarint();
+    const number = Math.floor(tag / 8);
+    const wireType = tag % 8;
+
+    if (wireType === 0) {
+      fields.push({ number, value: readVarint() });
+    } else if (wireType === 1) {
+      offset += 8;
+    } else if (wireType === 2) {
+      const length = readVarint();
+      fields.push({ number, value: buffer.subarray(offset, offset + length) });
+      offset += length;
+    } else if (wireType === 5) {
+      offset += 4;
+    } else {
+      break;
+    }
+  }
+
+  return fields;
+}
diff --git a/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/docker-image-client.ts b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/docker-image-client.ts
index ba1dcc602..0217ea0e2 100644
--- a/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/docker-image-client.ts
+++ b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/clients/image/docker-image-client.ts
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import tar from "tar-fs";
 import { buildLog, log, pullLog } from "../../../common";
 import { getAuthConfig } from "../../auth/get-auth-config";
 import type { ImageName } from "../../image-name";
+import { BuildOutput } from "./build-output";
 import type { ImageClient } from "./image-client";
 
 export class DockerImageClient implements ImageClient {
@@ -26,20 +27,24 @@ export class DockerImageClient implements ImageClient {
       log.debug(`Building image "${opts.t}" with context "${context}"...`);
       const tarPackOptions = await this.createTarPackOptions(context, opts.dockerfile ?? "Dockerfile");
       const tarStream = Readable.from(tar.pack(context, tarPackOptions));
-      await new Promise<void>((resolve) => {
-        this.dockerode
-          .buildImage(tarStream, opts)
-          .then((stream) => byline(stream))
-          .then((stream) => {
-            stream.setEncoding("utf-8");
-            stream.on("data", (line) => {
-              if (buildLog.enabled()) {
-                buildLog.trace(line, { imageName: opts.t });
-              }
-            });
-            stream.on("end", () => resolve());
-          });
+      const stream = await this.dockerode.buildImage(tarStream, opts);
+      const buildOutput = new BuildOutput();
+      await new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
+        stream.on("error", reject);
+        const lines = byline(stream);
+        lines.setEncoding("utf-8");
+        lines.on("data", (line) => {
+          if (buildLog.enabled()) {
+            buildLog.trace(line, { imageName: opts.t });
+          }
+          buildOutput.add(line);
+        });
+        lines.on("end", () => resolve());
       });
+      const failure = buildOutput.getFailure();
+      if (failure !== undefined) {
+        throw new Error(failure);
+      }
       log.debug(`Built image "${opts.t}" with context "${context}"`);
     } catch (err) {
       log.error(`Failed to build image: ${err}`);
diff --git a/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container-builder.ts b/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container-builder.ts
index d06a7867e..21be924ba 100644
--- a/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container-builder.ts
+++ b/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container-builder.ts
@@ -104,7 +104,11 @@ export class GenericContainerBuilder {
       buildOptions.pull = true;
     }
 
-    await client.image.build(this.context, buildOptions);
+    try {
+      await client.image.build(this.context, buildOptions);
+    } catch (err) {
+      throw new Error(`Failed to build image: ${err instanceof Error ? err.message : err}`, { cause: err });
+    }
 
     const container = new GenericContainer(imageName.string);
     if (!(await client.image.exists(imageName))) {
diff --git a/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container-dockerfile.test.ts b/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container-dockerfile.test.ts
index 37ae3e42f..73484566e 100644
--- a/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container-dockerfile.test.ts
+++ b/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container-dockerfile.test.ts
@@ -36,6 +36,24 @@ describe("GenericContainer Dockerfile", { timeout: 180_000 }, () => {
     });
   }
 
+  it("should include the build output when the build fails", async () => {
+    const context = path.resolve(fixtures, "docker-with-failing-build");
+
+    await expect(GenericContainer.fromDockerfile(context).build()).rejects.toThrow(
+      /^Failed to build image: .*No such file or directory/s
+    );
+  });
+
+  if (!process.env.CI_PODMAN) {
+    it("should include the build output when the build fails with buildkit", async () => {
+      const context = path.resolve(fixtures, "docker-with-failing-build");
+
+      await expect(GenericContainer.fromDockerfile(context).withBuildkit().build()).rejects.toThrow(
+        /^Failed to build image: .*No such file or directory/s
+      );
+    });
+  }
+
   it("should have a session ID label to be cleaned up by the Reaper", async () => {
     const context = path.resolve(fixtures, "docker");
     const imageName = `${uuidGen.nextUuid()}:${uuidGen.nextUuid()}`;
diff --git a/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container.test.ts b/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container.test.ts
index eccf94c0b..d3e1f5a83 100644
--- a/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container.test.ts
+++ b/packages/testcontainers/src/generic-container/generic-container.test.ts
@@ -692,10 +692,11 @@ describe("GenericContainer", { timeout: 180_000 }, () => {
     expect(container.getHostname()).toEqual("hostname");
   });
 
-  // failing to build an image hangs within the DockerImageClient.build method,
-  // that change might be larger so leave it out of this commit but skip the failing test
-  it.skip("should throw an error for a target stage that does not exist", async () => {
+  it("should throw an error for a target stage that does not exist", async () => {
     const context = path.resolve(fixtures, "docker-multi-stage");
-    await GenericContainer.fromDockerfile(context).withTarget("invalid").build();
+
+    await expect(GenericContainer.fromDockerfile(context).withTarget("invalid").build()).rejects.toThrow(
+      "Failed to build image: "
+    );
   });
 });