diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 6df806db59e4..d25aac32594f 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -363,6 +363,7 @@ project(':iceberg-core') {
       exclude group: 'org.apache.avro', module: 'avro'
       exclude group: 'org.slf4j', module: 'slf4j-log4j12'
     }
+    implementation("org.rocksdb:rocksdbjni:${libs.versions.rocksdb.get()}")
 
     testImplementation libs.jetty.servlet
     testImplementation libs.jetty.server
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/util/RocksDBStructLikeSet.java b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/util/RocksDBStructLikeSet.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..587084656f12
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/util/RocksDBStructLikeSet.java
@@ -0,0 +1,199 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.iceberg.util;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.DataInputStream;
+import java.io.DataOutputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.UncheckedIOException;
+import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
+import java.util.Iterator;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.stream.Collectors;
+import org.apache.iceberg.StructLike;
+import org.apache.iceberg.data.GenericRecord;
+import org.apache.iceberg.relocated.com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
+import org.apache.iceberg.relocated.com.google.common.collect.Iterables;
+import org.apache.iceberg.types.Conversions;
+import org.apache.iceberg.types.Type;
+import org.apache.iceberg.types.Types;
+import org.rocksdb.Options;
+import org.rocksdb.RocksDB;
+import org.rocksdb.RocksDBException;
+
+public class RocksDBStructLikeSet extends StructLikeSet {
+
+  private final RocksDB db;
+  private int size = 0;
+  private final StructLikeSerializer serializer;
+
+  private static volatile RocksDBStructLikeSet instance;
+  private static volatile boolean loaded = false;
+
+  private RocksDBStructLikeSet(Types.StructType type) {
+    super(type);
+    try {
+      Options options = new Options().setCreateIfMissing(true);
+      this.db = RocksDB.open(options, mkDir());
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      throw new RuntimeException(e);
+    }
+    this.serializer = new StructLikeSerializer(type);
+  }
+
+  static {
+    RocksDB.loadLibrary();
+  }
+
+  public static StructLikeSet getOrCreate(
+      Types.StructType type, Iterable<Iterable<StructLike>> deletes) {
+    if (!loaded) {
+      synchronized (RocksDBStructLikeSet.class) {
+        if (!loaded) {
+          instance = new RocksDBStructLikeSet(type);
+          Iterables.addAll(instance, Iterables.concat(deletes));
+          loaded = true;
+        }
+      }
+    }
+    return instance;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public int size() {
+    return size;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public boolean isEmpty() {
+    return size == 0;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public boolean contains(Object obj) {
+    if (obj instanceof StructLike || obj == null) {
+      byte[] key = serializer.serialize((StructLike) obj);
+      try {
+        return db.get(key) != null;
+      } catch (RocksDBException e) {
+        throw new RuntimeException(e);
+      }
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public Iterator<StructLike> iterator() {
+    throw new UnsupportedOperationException("iterator is not supported");
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public boolean add(StructLike struct) {
+    byte[] key = serializer.serialize(struct);
+    try {
+      db.put(key, new byte[0]);
+      size += 1;
+      return true;
+    } catch (RocksDBException e) {
+      throw new RuntimeException(e);
+    }
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public boolean remove(Object obj) {
+    throw new UnsupportedOperationException("remove is not supported");
+  }
+
+  private static class StructLikeSerializer {
+
+    private static final int NULL_MARK = -1;
+    private final Types.StructType struct;
+    private final List<Type> types;
+
+    private StructLikeSerializer(Types.StructType struct) {
+      this.struct = struct;
+      this.types =
+          struct.fields().stream().map(Types.NestedField::type).collect(Collectors.toList());
+    }
+
+    public byte[] serialize(StructLike object) {
+      if (object == null) {
+        return null;
+      }
+
+      try (ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+          DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(out)) {
+
+        for (int i = 0; i < types.size(); i += 1) {
+          Type type = types.get(i);
+          Class<?> valueClass = type.typeId().javaClass();
+
+          byte[] fieldData =
+              ByteBuffers.toByteArray(Conversions.toByteBuffer(type, object.get(i, valueClass)));
+          if (fieldData == null) {
+            dos.writeInt(NULL_MARK);
+          } else {
+            dos.writeInt(fieldData.length);
+            dos.write(fieldData);
+          }
+        }
+        return out.toByteArray();
+      } catch (IOException e) {
+        throw new UncheckedIOException(e);
+      }
+    }
+
+    public StructLike deserialize(byte[] data) {
+      if (data == null) {
+        return null;
+      }
+
+      try (ByteArrayInputStream in = new ByteArrayInputStream(data);
+          DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(in)) {
+
+        GenericRecord record = GenericRecord.create(struct);
+        for (int i = 0; i < types.size(); i += 1) {
+          int length = dis.readInt();
+
+          if (length == NULL_MARK) {
+            record.set(i, null);
+          } else {
+            byte[] fieldData = new byte[length];
+            int fieldDataSize = dis.read(fieldData);
+            Preconditions.checkState(length == fieldDataSize, "%s != %s", length, fieldDataSize);
+            record.set(i, Conversions.fromByteBuffer(types.get(i), ByteBuffer.wrap(fieldData)));
+          }
+        }
+
+        return record;
+      } catch (IOException e) {
+        throw new UncheckedIOException(e);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  private String mkDir() throws IOException {
+    Path path = Files.createTempDirectory("iceberg-rocksdb");
+    return path.toString();
+  }
+}
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/util/StructLikeSet.java b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/util/StructLikeSet.java
index f1f32cb92435..e555f77e0d22 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/util/StructLikeSet.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/util/StructLikeSet.java
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ public static StructLikeSet create(Types.StructType type) {
   private final Set<StructLikeWrapper> wrapperSet;
   private final ThreadLocal<StructLikeWrapper> wrappers;
 
-  private StructLikeSet(Types.StructType type) {
+  protected StructLikeSet(Types.StructType type) {
     this.type = type;
     this.wrapperSet = Sets.newHashSet();
     this.wrappers = ThreadLocal.withInitial(() -> StructLikeWrapper.forType(type));
diff --git a/data/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/data/BaseDeleteLoader.java b/data/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/data/BaseDeleteLoader.java
index 91b7fd1c1dc1..ec5c40ef43ee 100644
--- a/data/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/data/BaseDeleteLoader.java
+++ b/data/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/data/BaseDeleteLoader.java
@@ -47,10 +47,10 @@
 import org.apache.iceberg.parquet.Parquet;
 import org.apache.iceberg.parquet.ParquetValueReader;
 import org.apache.iceberg.relocated.com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
-import org.apache.iceberg.relocated.com.google.common.collect.Iterables;
 import org.apache.iceberg.relocated.com.google.common.math.LongMath;
 import org.apache.iceberg.types.TypeUtil;
 import org.apache.iceberg.util.CharSequenceMap;
+import org.apache.iceberg.util.RocksDBStructLikeSet;
 import org.apache.iceberg.util.StructLikeSet;
 import org.apache.iceberg.util.Tasks;
 import org.apache.iceberg.util.ThreadPools;
@@ -105,10 +105,9 @@ protected <V> V getOrLoad(String key, Supplier<V> valueSupplier, long valueSize)
   @Override
   public StructLikeSet loadEqualityDeletes(Iterable<DeleteFile> deleteFiles, Schema projection) {
     Iterable<Iterable<StructLike>> deletes =
-        execute(deleteFiles, deleteFile -> getOrReadEqDeletes(deleteFile, projection));
-    StructLikeSet deleteSet = StructLikeSet.create(projection.asStruct());
-    Iterables.addAll(deleteSet, Iterables.concat(deletes));
-    return deleteSet;
+        execute(
+            deleteFiles, deleteFile -> toStructs(openDeletes(deleteFile, projection), projection));
+    return RocksDBStructLikeSet.getOrCreate(projection.asStruct(), deletes);
   }
 
   private Iterable<StructLike> getOrReadEqDeletes(DeleteFile deleteFile, Schema projection) {
diff --git a/gradle/libs.versions.toml b/gradle/libs.versions.toml
index 5f07fb949278..87f1057943b1 100644
--- a/gradle/libs.versions.toml
+++ b/gradle/libs.versions.toml
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ orc = "1.9.3"
 parquet = "1.13.1"
 pig = "0.17.0"
 roaringbitmap = "1.2.0"
+rocksdb = "7.9.2"
 s3mock-junit5 = "2.11.0"
 scala-collection-compat = "2.12.0"
 slf4j = "1.7.36"