diff --git a/std/net/curl.d b/std/net/curl.d
index b26df2d9149..12b101b07d8 100644
--- a/std/net/curl.d
+++ b/std/net/curl.d
@@ -3339,7 +3339,9 @@ struct Curl
 
     private string errorString(CurlCode code)
     {
-        return format("%s on handle %s", to!string(curl_easy_strerror(code)), handle);
+        auto msgZ = curl_easy_strerror(code);
+        // doing the following (instead of just using std.conv.to!string) avoids 1 allocation
+        return format("%s on handle %s", cast(string) msgZ[0 .. core.stdc.strlen(msgZ)], handle);
     }
 
     private void throwOnStopped(string message = null)