diff --git a/src/core/Akka.Streams/ActorMaterializer.cs b/src/core/Akka.Streams/ActorMaterializer.cs
index b71e1f05938..e4212faa6e8 100644
--- a/src/core/Akka.Streams/ActorMaterializer.cs
+++ b/src/core/Akka.Streams/ActorMaterializer.cs
@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 using System;
+using System.Collections.Concurrent;
 using System.Runtime.Serialization;
+using System.Threading.Tasks;
 using Akka.Actor;
 using Akka.Configuration;
 using Akka.Dispatch;
@@ -43,6 +45,18 @@ public static Config DefaultConfig()
 
         #region static
 
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Injecting the top-level Materializer HOCON configuration over and over again is expensive, so we want to avoid
+        /// doing it each time a materializer is instantiated. This flag will be set to true once the configuration has been
+        /// injected the first time.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static readonly ConcurrentDictionary<ActorSystem, bool> InjectedConfig = new();
+        
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Cache the default materializer settings so we don't constantly parse them
+        /// </summary>
+        private static readonly ConcurrentDictionary<ActorSystem, ActorMaterializerSettings> DefaultSettings = new();
+
         /// <summary>
         /// <para>
         /// Creates a ActorMaterializer which will execute every step of a transformation
@@ -75,9 +89,28 @@ public static ActorMaterializer Create(IActorRefFactory context, ActorMaterializ
             var haveShutDown = new AtomicBoolean();
             var system = ActorSystemOf(context);
 
-            system.Settings.InjectTopLevelFallback(DefaultConfig());
+            if(!InjectedConfig.TryGetValue(system, out _) && InjectedConfig.TryAdd(system, true))
+            {
+                // Inject the top-level fallback config for the Materializer once, and only once.
+                // This is a performance optimization to avoid having to do this on every materialization.
+                system.Settings.InjectTopLevelFallback(DefaultConfig());
 
-            settings = settings ?? ActorMaterializerSettings.Create(system);
+                static async Task CleanUp(ActorSystem sys)
+                {
+                    // remove ActorSystem from cache when it terminates so we don't leak memory
+                    await sys.WhenTerminated.ConfigureAwait(false);
+                    InjectedConfig.TryRemove(sys, out _);
+                    DefaultSettings.TryRemove(sys, out _);
+                }
+
+#pragma warning disable CS4014
+                CleanUp(system);
+#pragma warning restore CS4014
+
+            }
+
+            // use the default settings if none have been passed in
+            settings ??= DefaultSettings.GetOrAdd(system, ActorMaterializerSettings.Create);
 
             return new ActorMaterializerImpl(
                 system: system,
@@ -90,14 +123,14 @@ public static ActorMaterializer Create(IActorRefFactory context, ActorMaterializ
 
         private static ActorSystem ActorSystemOf(IActorRefFactory context)
         {
-            if (context is ExtendedActorSystem)
-                return (ActorSystem)context;
-            if (context is IActorContext)
-                return ((IActorContext)context).System;
-            if (context == null)
-                throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(context), "IActorRefFactory must be defined");
-
-            throw new ArgumentException($"ActorRefFactory context must be a ActorSystem or ActorContext, got [{context.GetType()}]");
+            return context switch
+            {
+                ExtendedActorSystem system => system,
+                IActorContext actorContext => actorContext.System,
+                null => throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(context), "IActorRefFactory must be defined"),
+                _ => throw new ArgumentException(
+                    $"ActorRefFactory context must be a ActorSystem or ActorContext, got [{context.GetType()}]")
+            };
         }
 
         #endregion