diff --git a/src/NATS.Client.OpenTelemetry/NatsInstrumentationOptionsExtensions.cs b/src/NATS.Client.OpenTelemetry/NatsInstrumentationOptionsExtensions.cs
index 8a039c8cc..da84aa7c0 100644
--- a/src/NATS.Client.OpenTelemetry/NatsInstrumentationOptionsExtensions.cs
+++ b/src/NATS.Client.OpenTelemetry/NatsInstrumentationOptionsExtensions.cs
@@ -88,21 +88,38 @@ public static NatsInstrumentationOptions FilterSubjects(
     }
 
     // NATS subject match: '*' matches exactly one token, '>' matches one or more trailing tokens.
+    // Walks the subject token by token instead of allocating a string[] per message; the pattern is
+    // already tokenized once at configuration time.
     private static bool Matches(string subject, string[] pattern)
     {
-        var tokens = subject.Split('.');
+        var remaining = subject.AsSpan();
+        var exhausted = false;
+
         for (var i = 0; i < pattern.Length; i++)
         {
             if (pattern[i] == ">")
-                return tokens.Length > i;
+                return !exhausted; // '>' needs at least one remaining subject token; exhausted means the subject is fully consumed
 
-            if (i >= tokens.Length)
-                return false;
+            if (exhausted)
+                return false; // pattern has more tokens than the subject
+
+            var dot = remaining.IndexOf('.');
+            ReadOnlySpan<char> token;
+            if (dot < 0)
+            {
+                token = remaining;
+                exhausted = true; // this was the subject's last token
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                token = remaining.Slice(0, dot);
+                remaining = remaining.Slice(dot + 1);
+            }
 
-            if (pattern[i] != "*" && !string.Equals(pattern[i], tokens[i], StringComparison.Ordinal))
+            if (pattern[i] != "*" && !pattern[i].AsSpan().SequenceEqual(token))
                 return false;
         }
 
-        return tokens.Length == pattern.Length;
+        return exhausted; // subject and pattern must have the same token count
     }
 }
diff --git a/tests/NATS.Net.OpenTelemetry.Tests/NatsInstrumentationExtensionsTest.cs b/tests/NATS.Net.OpenTelemetry.Tests/NatsInstrumentationExtensionsTest.cs
index a5d1d9527..803ef2043 100644
--- a/tests/NATS.Net.OpenTelemetry.Tests/NatsInstrumentationExtensionsTest.cs
+++ b/tests/NATS.Net.OpenTelemetry.Tests/NatsInstrumentationExtensionsTest.cs
@@ -115,6 +115,32 @@ public void FilterSubjects_composes_with_existing_filter()
         options.Filter!(Context("payments.new")).Should().BeFalse(); // dropped by the pre-existing filter
     }
 
+    // Trailing dots are not valid in NATS subjects; this pins the matcher to the same
+    // behavior as the previous Split-based implementation, not protocol compliance.
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData("foo.", true)] // trailing dot: tokens are "foo" and "", '*' matches the empty token
+    [InlineData("foo", false)] // only one token, pattern needs two
+    [InlineData("foo.bar.", false)] // three tokens ("foo", "bar", ""), pattern needs exactly two
+    public void FilterSubjects_invalid_subject_empty_trailing_token(string subject, bool expected)
+    {
+        var options = new NatsInstrumentationOptions().FilterSubjects(include: ["foo.*"]);
+
+        options.Filter!(Context(subject)).Should().Be(expected);
+    }
+
+    // Consecutive dots are not valid in NATS subjects; this pins the matcher to the same
+    // behavior as the previous Split-based implementation, not protocol compliance.
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData("foo..bar", true)] // consecutive dots: tokens "foo", "", "bar"
+    [InlineData("foo.bar", true)]
+    [InlineData("foo", false)] // '>' needs at least one trailing token
+    public void FilterSubjects_invalid_subject_greater_than_spans_empty_tokens(string subject, bool expected)
+    {
+        var options = new NatsInstrumentationOptions().FilterSubjects(include: ["foo.>"]);
+
+        options.Filter!(Context(subject)).Should().Be(expected);
+    }
+
     [Fact]
     public void FilterSubjects_without_patterns_leaves_filter_unset()
     {