diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 52d7b4b8..b27f2650 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+40.1.1
+------
+- Optimize an internal code path, no user facing changes.
+
 40.1.0
 ------
 - Add support for configuration of receiver's buffer size - `receive-buffer-size`
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index aff9bdec..4145846e 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/service/ec2 v1.187.0
 	github.com/cenkalti/backoff v2.2.1+incompatible
 	github.com/go-redis/redis/v8 v8.11.5
+	github.com/google/uuid v1.6.0
 	github.com/gorilla/mux v1.8.0
 	github.com/jessevdk/go-flags v1.5.0
 	github.com/json-iterator/go v1.1.12
diff --git a/pkg/statsd/handler_tags.go b/pkg/statsd/handler_tags.go
index 7a6e0c70..929a09c3 100644
--- a/pkg/statsd/handler_tags.go
+++ b/pkg/statsd/handler_tags.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package statsd
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"slices"
 
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/spf13/viper"
@@ -36,7 +37,7 @@ func NewTagHandlerFromViper(v *viper.Viper, handler gostatsd.PipelineHandler, ta
 // NewTagHandler initialises a new handler which adds unique tags, and sends metrics/events to the next handler based
 // on filter rules.
 func NewTagHandler(handler gostatsd.PipelineHandler, tags gostatsd.Tags, filters []Filter) *TagHandler {
-	tags = uniqueTags(tags, gostatsd.Tags{}) // de-dupe tags
+	tags = uniqueTagsSimple(tags, gostatsd.Tags{}) // de-dupe tags
 	return &TagHandler{
 		handler:       handler,
 		tags:          tags,
@@ -147,7 +148,7 @@ func (th *TagHandler) DispatchMetricMap(ctx context.Context, mm *gostatsd.Metric
 // Returns true if the metric should be processed further, or false to drop it.
 func (th *TagHandler) uniqueFilterAndAddTags(mName string, mHostname *gostatsd.Source, mTags *gostatsd.Tags) bool {
 	if len(th.filters) == 0 {
-		*mTags = uniqueTags(*mTags, th.tags)
+		*mTags = uniqueTagsSimple(*mTags, th.tags)
 		return true
 	}
 
@@ -193,7 +194,7 @@ func (th *TagHandler) uniqueFilterAndAddTags(mName string, mHostname *gostatsd.S
 
 // DispatchEvent adds the unique tags from the TagHandler to the event and passes it to the next stage in the pipeline
 func (th *TagHandler) DispatchEvent(ctx context.Context, e *gostatsd.Event) {
-	e.Tags = uniqueTags(e.Tags, th.tags)
+	e.Tags = uniqueTagsSimple(e.Tags, th.tags)
 	th.handler.DispatchEvent(ctx, e)
 }
 
@@ -202,12 +203,40 @@ func (th *TagHandler) WaitForEvents() {
 	th.handler.WaitForEvents()
 }
 
-// uniqueTags returns the set of t1 | t2.  It may modify the contents of t1 and t2.
-func uniqueTags(t1 gostatsd.Tags, t2 gostatsd.Tags) gostatsd.Tags {
-	return uniqueTagsWithSeen(map[string]struct{}{}, t1, t2)
+// uniqueTagsSimple returns the set of t1 | t2.  It may modify the contents of t1.  It will not modify the contents
+// of t2.
+func uniqueTagsSimple(t1 gostatsd.Tags, t2 gostatsd.Tags) gostatsd.Tags {
+	// This originally tracked seen tags in a map, however as the number of tags is relatively small, it's actually
+	// faster to do a linear scan than to put things in a map, even if the map is pre-allocated.  The break-even
+	// point is approximately 20 unique items.
+	//
+	// Benchmarking against the https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/SliceTricks style of filtering a slice shows
+	// this is slightly faster, at the expense of breaking "nearly sorted" ordering.  Benchmarking with a
+	// `.SortedString()` on the output shows that this is still better.
+
+	last := len(t1)
+	for idx := 1; idx < last; { // start at 1 because we know the first item will be unique.
+		if slices.Contains(t1[:idx-1], t1[idx]) {
+			// Delete the current item by copying the last item in to this slot, and "shrinking" the slice.
+			last--
+			t1[idx] = t1[last]
+		} else {
+			idx++
+		}
+	}
+	t1 = t1[:last]
+
+	for _, tag := range t2 {
+		if !slices.Contains(t1, tag) {
+			t1 = append(t1, tag)
+		}
+	}
+
+	return t1
 }
 
-// uniqueTags returns the set of (t1 | t2) - seen.  It may modify the contents of t1, t2, and seen.
+// uniqueTagsWithSeen returns the set of (t1 | t2) - seen.  It may modify the contents of t1 and seen.  It will not
+// modify the contents of t2.
 func uniqueTagsWithSeen(seen map[string]struct{}, t1 gostatsd.Tags, t2 gostatsd.Tags) gostatsd.Tags {
 	last := len(t1)
 	for idx := 0; idx < last; {
diff --git a/pkg/statsd/handler_tags_test.go b/pkg/statsd/handler_tags_test.go
index a7647c57..85b31d81 100644
--- a/pkg/statsd/handler_tags_test.go
+++ b/pkg/statsd/handler_tags_test.go
@@ -3,10 +3,13 @@ package statsd
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"context"
+	"slices"
 	"sort"
+	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
+	"github.com/google/uuid"
 	"github.com/spf13/viper"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
@@ -15,6 +18,74 @@ import (
 	. "github.com/atlassian/gostatsd/internal/fixtures"
 )
 
+func benchmarkUnique(b *testing.B, t1 gostatsd.Tags, t2 gostatsd.Tags) {
+	// Sanity check.
+	u1 := uniqueTagsSimple(slices.Clone(t1), slices.Clone(t2))
+	u2 := uniqueTagsWithSeen(map[string]struct{}{}, slices.Clone(t1), slices.Clone(t2))
+	u3 := uniqueTagsWithSeen(make(map[string]struct{}, len(t1)), slices.Clone(t1), slices.Clone(t2))
+	require.Equal(b, u1.SortedString(), u2.SortedString())
+	require.Equal(b, u1.SortedString(), u3.SortedString())
+
+	runBenchmark := func(name string, f func(t1, t2 gostatsd.Tags) gostatsd.Tags) {
+		b.Run(name, func(b *testing.B) {
+			b.ReportAllocs()
+			for b.Loop() {
+				_ = f(slices.Clone(t1), slices.Clone(t2))
+				// This can be used to measure the cost of sorting.
+				//_ = f(slices.Clone(t1), slices.Clone(t2)).SortedString()
+			}
+		})
+	}
+
+	runBenchmark("original", func(t1, t2 gostatsd.Tags) gostatsd.Tags {
+		return uniqueTagsWithSeen(map[string]struct{}{}, t1, t2)
+	})
+
+	runBenchmark("prealloc", func(t1, t2 gostatsd.Tags) gostatsd.Tags {
+		return uniqueTagsWithSeen(make(map[string]struct{}, len(t1)), t1, t2)
+	})
+
+	runBenchmark("array-search", func(t1, t2 gostatsd.Tags) gostatsd.Tags {
+		return uniqueTagsSimple(t1, t2)
+	})
+}
+
+func BenchmarkUniqueTagsPractical(b *testing.B) {
+	// Generate 5 tags.  These are the tags emitted at the call-site, and are dynamic.
+	dynamicTags := gostatsd.Tags{
+		uuid.New().String() + ":" + uuid.New().String(),
+		uuid.New().String() + ":" + uuid.New().String(),
+		uuid.New().String() + ":" + uuid.New().String(),
+		uuid.New().String() + ":" + uuid.New().String(),
+		uuid.New().String() + ":" + uuid.New().String(),
+	}
+
+	// Generate 1 overlapping tag, and 3 unique tags.  These are the tags added by TagHandler, and are static.
+	staticTags := gostatsd.Tags{
+		dynamicTags[0],
+		uuid.New().String() + ":" + uuid.New().String(),
+		uuid.New().String() + ":" + uuid.New().String(),
+		uuid.New().String() + ":" + uuid.New().String(),
+	}
+	benchmarkUnique(b, dynamicTags, staticTags)
+}
+
+func BenchmarkUniqueTagsWithSeen(b *testing.B) {
+	for tagCount := range 30 {
+		b.Run(strconv.Itoa(tagCount)+"-tags", func(b *testing.B) {
+			originalTags := gostatsd.Tags{}
+			for i := 0; i < tagCount; i++ {
+				originalTags = append(originalTags, uuid.New().String()+":"+uuid.New().String())
+			}
+			originalTags2 := slices.Clone(originalTags)
+			for i := tagCount / 2; i < tagCount; i++ {
+				originalTags2[i] = uuid.New().String() + ":" + uuid.New().String()
+			}
+			benchmarkUnique(b, originalTags, originalTags2)
+		})
+	}
+}
+
 func TestTagStripMergesCounters(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Parallel()
 	tch := &capturingHandler{}