diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8ced1fee97..70c9f04dee 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 
 ### Performance
 
+- Avoid waiting up to `shutdownTimeoutMillis` when closing the SDK with a pending transaction timeout or session-end task ([#5851](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java/pull/5851))
 - Use `RGB_565` instead of `ARGB_8888` for screenshot and replay capture bitmaps, halving per-frame memory usage ([#5821](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java/pull/5821))
 - 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))
diff --git a/sentry/src/main/java/io/sentry/SentryExecutorService.java b/sentry/src/main/java/io/sentry/SentryExecutorService.java
index e20c083563..e50cb032d4 100644
--- a/sentry/src/main/java/io/sentry/SentryExecutorService.java
+++ b/sentry/src/main/java/io/sentry/SentryExecutorService.java
@@ -55,6 +55,10 @@ public SentryExecutorService(final @Nullable SentryOptions options) {
     executorService.setRemoveOnCancelPolicy(removeOnCancelPolicy);
     executorService.setKeepAliveTime(keepAliveTime, keepAliveTimeUnit);
     executorService.allowCoreThreadTimeOut(true);
+    // by default shutdown() keeps queued delayed tasks, so awaitTermination blocks for the full
+    // shutdown timeout whenever a long timeout is still pending. Those tasks are discarded by the
+    // subsequent shutdownNow() anyway, so dropping them upfront only saves the wait.
+    executorService.setExecuteExistingDelayedTasksAfterShutdownPolicy(false);
   }
 
   public SentryExecutorService() {