<p>We study cosmological gravitational particle production (CGPP) in Higgs inflation, wherein the inflaton is a scalar field with quartic self-coupling <i>λ</i> and a nonminimal coupling to gravity <i>ξ</i>, and which may, but need not be, the Higgs boson of the Standard Model (SM). We find an explosive particle production peaked on a characteristic comoving wavenumber <i>k</i> ~ <i>ξ</i>^2<i>/</i>3<i>aH</i> with a peak occupation number that scales with <i>ξ</i>. This new peak in production can easily dominate over the conventional (minimally coupled inflation) CGPP even for modest values of <i>ξ</i>. The results apply for a wide range of <i>ξ</i>, e.g., as low as <i>ξ</i> = 10, which can be realized for the Standard Model Higgs given suitable RG flow of the quartic coupling. We discuss implications for late time relics such as dark matter.</p>