diff --git a/modules/caddyhttp/fileserver/calculate_etag_bench_test.go b/modules/caddyhttp/fileserver/calculate_etag_bench_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ab6cde79114
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/caddyhttp/fileserver/calculate_etag_bench_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+package fileserver
+
+import (
+	"io/fs"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+type benchFileInfo struct {
+	size  int64
+	mtime time.Time
+}
+
+func (fi benchFileInfo) Name() string       { return "file.txt" }
+func (fi benchFileInfo) Size() int64         { return fi.size }
+func (fi benchFileInfo) Mode() fs.FileMode   { return 0o644 }
+func (fi benchFileInfo) ModTime() time.Time  { return fi.mtime }
+func (fi benchFileInfo) IsDir() bool         { return false }
+func (fi benchFileInfo) Sys() any            { return nil }
+
+func BenchmarkCalculateEtag(b *testing.B) {
+	fi := benchFileInfo{size: 1234567, mtime: time.Unix(1700000000, 123456789)}
+	b.ReportAllocs()
+	for b.Loop() {
+		_ = calculateEtag(fi)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/modules/caddyhttp/fileserver/staticfiles.go b/modules/caddyhttp/fileserver/staticfiles.go
index 3ca7452e112..7dd87503d9d 100644
--- a/modules/caddyhttp/fileserver/staticfiles.go
+++ b/modules/caddyhttp/fileserver/staticfiles.go
@@ -765,12 +765,14 @@ func calculateEtag(d os.FileInfo) string {
 	if !usefulModTime(mtime) {
 		return ""
 	}
-	var sb strings.Builder
-	sb.WriteRune('"')
-	sb.WriteString(strconv.FormatInt(mtime.UnixNano(), 36))
-	sb.WriteString(strconv.FormatInt(d.Size(), 36))
-	sb.WriteRune('"')
-	return sb.String()
+	// A quoted etag of two base-36 int64 values is 30 bytes, thus fitting
+	// comfortably in 32 bytes, on the stack to prevent allocations
+	var buf [32]byte
+	b := append(buf[:0], '"')
+	b = strconv.AppendInt(b, mtime.UnixNano(), 36)
+	b = strconv.AppendInt(b, d.Size(), 36)
+	b = append(b, '"')
+	return string(b)
 }
 
 // Finds the first corresponding etag file for a given file in the file system and return its content