diff --git a/src/audit.jl b/src/audit.jl
index a150c3b..321d3ff 100644
--- a/src/audit.jl
+++ b/src/audit.jl
@@ -166,6 +166,19 @@ function _is_own(m::Module, name::Symbol)
     end
 end
 
+# `own_methods` is a scan over every public callable of every loaded module — 1916 candidates and
+# 11026 methods behind them for this package — and a suite that audits several modules pays it once
+# per audit. Its ANSWER, though, is "the methods whose defining module is `m`", and that set can
+# only change when a method is defined or deleted. Both bump the world counter: measured on 1.11.9,
+# 1.12.2 and 1.14.0-DEV, a method definition bumps it in all three.
+#
+# A `const` binding does NOT bump it on 1.11 (it does on 1.12 and later), which is why the key is
+# argued rather than assumed. A new `const` cannot change this answer: either it aliases something
+# whose methods belong to another module, or creating it defined a method and bumped the counter.
+const _OWN_METHODS = Ref{Tuple{UInt64,Dict{Module,Vector{Method}}}}((
+    typemax(UInt64), Dict{Module,Vector{Method}}()
+))
+
 """
     own_methods(m::Module) -> Vector{Method}
 
@@ -183,6 +196,21 @@ exported-or-`public` names of every loaded module. That last set is what catches
     every binding of every loaded module.
 """
 function own_methods(m::Module)
+    w = Base.get_world_counter()
+    (cached_world, cache) = _OWN_METHODS[]
+    cached_world == w || (cache = Dict{Module,Vector{Method}}())
+    # Copied out: the vector is the caller's to filter, sort or push to, and a caller that mutates
+    # it must not be able to corrupt what the next one sees.
+    haskey(cache, m) && return copy(cache[m])
+    out = _own_methods(m)
+    # Copy-on-write rather than `cache[m] = out`. The suite runs on four threads and a `Dict` is
+    # not safe under concurrent `setindex!`; swapping a freshly built one in means the worst a race
+    # can cost is a recomputation, never a corrupted table.
+    _OWN_METHODS[] = (w, merge(cache, Dict(m => out)))
+    return copy(out)
+end
+
+function _own_methods(m::Module)
     out = Method[]
     seen = Set{Method}()
     for f in _generic_candidates(m)
@@ -195,7 +223,11 @@ function own_methods(m::Module)
             mm.module === m && !(mm in seen) && (push!(seen, mm); push!(out, mm))
         end
     end
-    return sort!(out; by=mm -> (string(mm.name), string(mm.sig)))
+    # The key is built ONCE per method, not once per comparison. `sort!(…; by = f)` calls `f` on
+    # both sides of every comparison, and `string(mm.sig)` is not cheap: measured on this
+    # package's own 301 methods, the sort was 0.601s while building all 301 keys was 0.039s. That
+    # one line was 80% of `audit`, which is called once per module in every surface check.
+    return out[sortperm([(string(mm.name), string(mm.sig)) for mm in out])]
 end
 
 function _generic_candidates(m::Module)
diff --git a/test/test_dogfood.jl b/test/test_dogfood.jl
index 4a48781..0dab4b7 100644
--- a/test/test_dogfood.jl
+++ b/test/test_dogfood.jl
@@ -88,6 +88,11 @@ end
     # The control the testset above cannot be: an equality against a hand-written set is satisfied
     # by marking every name and updating the set to match. These are the names the front page
     # promises answers from, and a promise is exactly what a mark withdraws.
+    #
+    # Hoisted, and not for tidiness: `audit(ExperimentalAPI)` costs 0.75s — it reads a docstring
+    # for every public name and walks the method tables for the contributed ones — so calling it
+    # per iteration cost 17.8s, which was 16% of the whole suite.
+    surface = audit(ExperimentalAPI).surface
     for n in [
         Symbol("@experimental"),
         :Mark,
@@ -114,7 +119,7 @@ end
         :age,
         :docstring_note,
     ]
-        @test n in audit(ExperimentalAPI).surface
+        @test n in surface
         @test !isexperimental(ExperimentalAPI, n)
     end
 end