diff --git a/components/esp_trace/CMakeLists.txt b/components/esp_trace/CMakeLists.txt
index 9b3e3ac5ae7..871f1e715ad 100644
--- a/components/esp_trace/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/components/esp_trace/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -46,3 +46,7 @@ idf_component_register(SRCS ${srcs}
                        REQUIRES ${requires}
                        WHOLE_ARCHIVE TRUE
                        LDFRAGMENTS linker.lf)
+
+if(CONFIG_ESP_TRACE_OPTIMIZE_SPEED)
+    target_compile_options(${COMPONENT_LIB} PRIVATE -O2)
+endif()
diff --git a/components/esp_trace/Kconfig b/components/esp_trace/Kconfig
index 7a0d8e3c2c8..21b95c66917 100644
--- a/components/esp_trace/Kconfig
+++ b/components/esp_trace/Kconfig
@@ -159,4 +159,14 @@ menu "ESP Trace Configuration"
 
     endchoice
 
+    config ESP_TRACE_OPTIMIZE_SPEED
+        bool "Compile trace hot path for speed (-O2)"
+        depends on ESP_TRACE_ENABLE
+        default y
+        help
+            Compile this component with -O2 regardless of the project-wide
+            optimization level. The per-event trace path (locking, timestamps)
+            runs through this code, so its speed directly contributes to the
+            per-event tracing overhead.
+
 endmenu