diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1823146d55..b52621fae5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 ### Performance
 
 - Remove an unused lock from `SentryPerformanceProvider`, which was allocated on every cold start in `ContentProvider.onCreate` without ever being acquired ([#5871](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java/pull/5871))
+- Parse the app start profiling config with only the deserializer it needs instead of building a full `JsonSerializer` and `SentryOptions`, cutting 188 of 221 allocations on the main thread before `Application.onCreate` ([#5867](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java/pull/5867))
 
 ## 8.51.0
 
diff --git a/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/SentryPerformanceProvider.java b/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/SentryPerformanceProvider.java
index c37d384aee..9d1f2e13ec 100644
--- a/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/SentryPerformanceProvider.java
+++ b/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/SentryPerformanceProvider.java
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 import io.sentry.ILogger;
 import io.sentry.ISentryLifecycleToken;
 import io.sentry.ITransactionProfiler;
-import io.sentry.JsonSerializer;
+import io.sentry.JsonObjectReader;
 import io.sentry.SentryAppStartProfilingOptions;
 import io.sentry.SentryExecutorService;
 import io.sentry.SentryLevel;
@@ -117,8 +117,7 @@ private void launchAppStartProfiler(final @NotNull AppStartMetrics appStartMetri
     try (final @NotNull Reader reader =
             new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(configFile)))) {
       final @Nullable SentryAppStartProfilingOptions profilingOptions =
-          new JsonSerializer(SentryOptions.empty())
-              .deserialize(reader, SentryAppStartProfilingOptions.class);
+          deserializeProfilingConfig(reader);
 
       if (profilingOptions == null) {
         logger.log(
@@ -166,6 +165,25 @@ private void launchAppStartProfiler(final @NotNull AppStartMetrics appStartMetri
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Parses the app start profiling config with only the deserializer it needs. Going through {@link
+   * io.sentry.JsonSerializer} would allocate a full {@link SentryOptions} plus every registered
+   * deserializer on the main thread before {@code Application.onCreate}, to use exactly one of
+   * them.
+   *
+   * <p>Returns null on malformed input, matching what {@code JsonSerializer.deserialize} did, so
+   * callers keep reporting it as a deserialization failure rather than a read error.
+   */
+  private @Nullable SentryAppStartProfilingOptions deserializeProfilingConfig(
+      final @NotNull Reader reader) {
+    try (final @NotNull JsonObjectReader jsonReader = new JsonObjectReader(reader)) {
+      return new SentryAppStartProfilingOptions.Deserializer().deserialize(jsonReader, logger);
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      logger.log(SentryLevel.ERROR, "Error when deserializing", e);
+      return null;
+    }
+  }
+
   private void createAndStartContinuousProfiler(
       final @NotNull Context context,
       final @NotNull SentryAppStartProfilingOptions profilingOptions,
diff --git a/sentry-android-core/src/test/java/io/sentry/android/core/SentryPerformanceProviderTest.kt b/sentry-android-core/src/test/java/io/sentry/android/core/SentryPerformanceProviderTest.kt
index 254571181a..bff6cdfad3 100644
--- a/sentry-android-core/src/test/java/io/sentry/android/core/SentryPerformanceProviderTest.kt
+++ b/sentry-android-core/src/test/java/io/sentry/android/core/SentryPerformanceProviderTest.kt
@@ -153,6 +153,21 @@ class SentryPerformanceProviderTest {
       )
   }
 
+  @Test
+  fun `when config file is malformed, profiler is not started`() {
+    fixture.getSut { config -> config.writeText("{\"profile_sampled\": tru") }
+    assertNull(AppStartMetrics.getInstance().appStartProfiler)
+    assertNull(AppStartMetrics.getInstance().appStartContinuousProfiler)
+    verify(fixture.logger).log(eq(SentryLevel.ERROR), eq("Error when deserializing"), any())
+    verify(fixture.logger)
+      .log(
+        eq(SentryLevel.WARNING),
+        eq(
+          "Unable to deserialize the SentryAppStartProfilingOptions. App start profiling will not start."
+        ),
+      )
+  }
+
   @Test
   fun `when profiling is disabled, profiler is not started`() {
     fixture.getSut { config ->