diff --git a/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/run_bench.sh b/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/run_bench.sh
index 64df1e05eadd..205f26109569 100755
--- a/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/run_bench.sh
+++ b/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/run_bench.sh
@@ -14,13 +14,20 @@ filter=$4
 export GTEST_COLOR=1
 export HARDWARE_CONCURRENCY=${CPUS:-8}
 
+# Set ALLOCATOR=tcmalloc to use tcmalloc via LD_PRELOAD.
+BENCH_PRELOAD=""
+if [ "${ALLOCATOR:-}" = "tcmalloc" ]; then
+  sudo apt-get update -qq && sudo apt-get install -y -qq libtcmalloc-minimal4t64
+  BENCH_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/$(uname -m)-linux-gnu/libtcmalloc_minimal.so.4"
+fi
+
 mkdir -p bench-out/$(dirname $name)
 
 export MEMUSAGE_OUT="bench-out/$name-peak-memory-mb.txt"
 
 case $arch in
   native)
-    memusage $bin --benchmark_out=./bench-out/$name.json --benchmark_filter=$filter
+    LD_PRELOAD="${BENCH_PRELOAD}" memusage $bin --benchmark_out=./bench-out/$name.json --benchmark_filter=$filter
     ;;
   wasm)
     memusage ./scripts/wasmtime.sh $bin --benchmark_out=./bench-out/$name.json --benchmark_filter=$filter
diff --git a/release-image/Dockerfile.base b/release-image/Dockerfile.base
index 8e61fcb0babe..6ffdf0dee01e 100644
--- a/release-image/Dockerfile.base
+++ b/release-image/Dockerfile.base
@@ -23,7 +23,8 @@ RUN apt update && apt install -y \
       netcat-openbsd \
       parallel \
       curl \
-      gnupg && \
+      gnupg \
+      libtcmalloc-minimal4t64 && \
       curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg && \
       echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_$NODE_MAJOR.x nodistro main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list && \
       apt update && apt install nodejs && \
@@ -33,6 +34,8 @@ COPY --from=build /opt/foundry/bin/anvil /opt/foundry/bin/anvil
 COPY --from=build /opt/foundry/bin/forge /opt/foundry/bin/forge
 COPY --from=build /opt/foundry/bin/cast /opt/foundry/bin/cast
 ENV PATH="/opt/foundry/bin:$PATH" FOUNDRY_DISABLE_NIGHTLY_WARNING="1"
+# Use tcmalloc for reduced memory fragmentation and improved allocation performance.
+ENV LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtcmalloc_minimal.so.4"
 # Copy in production dependencies.
 COPY --from=build /usr/src/yarn-project/node_modules /usr/src/yarn-project/node_modules
 # We install a symlink to yarn-project's node_modules at a location that all portalled packages can find as they