diff --git a/mlflow/genai/prompts/utils.py b/mlflow/genai/prompts/utils.py
index cb0debe49f58d..6a8c52dfb9962 100644
--- a/mlflow/genai/prompts/utils.py
+++ b/mlflow/genai/prompts/utils.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import re
+from functools import lru_cache
 from typing import Any
 
 
@@ -8,5 +9,11 @@ def format_prompt(prompt: str, **values: Any) -> str:
         # Escape backslashes in the replacement string to prevent re.sub from interpreting
         # them as escape sequences (e.g. \u being treated as Unicode escape)
         replacement = str(value).replace("\\", "\\\\")
-        prompt = re.sub(r"\{\{\s*" + key + r"\s*\}\}", replacement, prompt)
+        prompt = _compiled_key_pattern(key).sub(replacement, prompt)
     return prompt
+
+
+@lru_cache(maxsize=64)
+def _compiled_key_pattern(key: str) -> re.Pattern:
+    # Compile and cache the regex pattern for a template variable key
+    return re.compile(r"\{\{\s*" + re.escape(key) + r"\s*\}\}")