diff --git a/benchmark/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Benchmarks/ValidatorBenchmarks.cs b/benchmark/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Benchmarks/ValidatorBenchmarks.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8a77031c81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Benchmarks/ValidatorBenchmarks.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+// Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
+// Licensed under the MIT License.
+
+using BenchmarkDotNet.Attributes;
+using Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Linq;
+
+namespace Microsoft.IdentityModel.Benchmarks
+{
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Benchmarks for validator methods to measure performance of different implementations
+    /// </summary>
+    public class ValidatorBenchmarks
+    {
+        private List<string> _audiences;
+        private TokenValidationParameters _parametersWithList;
+        private TokenValidationParameters _parametersWithEnumerable;
+
+        [GlobalSetup]
+        public void Setup()
+        {
+            _audiences = ["audience1"];
+            var validAudiences = new List<string> { "invalid1", "invalid2", "audience1" }; // Make sure audience is last to maximize iteration
+
+            _parametersWithList = new TokenValidationParameters
+            {
+                ValidAudiences = validAudiences
+            };
+
+            _parametersWithEnumerable = new TokenValidationParameters
+            {
+                ValidAudiences = validAudiences.Select(x => x) // Force enumerable by using LINQ
+            };
+        }
+
+        [Benchmark(Baseline = true)]
+        public void ValidateAudience_WithList()
+        {
+            Validators.ValidateAudience(_audiences, null, _parametersWithList);
+        }
+
+        [Benchmark]
+        public void ValidateAudience_WithEnumerable()
+        {
+            Validators.ValidateAudience(_audiences, null, _parametersWithEnumerable);
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens/Validators.cs b/src/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens/Validators.cs
index 033afa3aea..6537571426 100644
--- a/src/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens/Validators.cs
+++ b/src/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens/Validators.cs
@@ -143,10 +143,10 @@ private static bool AudienceIsValid(IEnumerable<string> audiences, TokenValidati
                 if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(tokenAudience))
                     continue;
 
-                foreach (string validAudience in validationParametersAudiences)
+                bool TryMatchAudience(string validAudience)
                 {
                     if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(validAudience))
-                        continue;
+                        return false;
 
                     if (AudiencesMatch(validationParameters, tokenAudience, validAudience))
                     {
@@ -155,6 +155,25 @@ private static bool AudienceIsValid(IEnumerable<string> audiences, TokenValidati
 
                         return true;
                     }
+
+                    return false;
+                }
+
+                if (validationParametersAudiences is IList<string> audienceList)
+                {
+                    for (int i = 0; i < audienceList.Count; i++)
+                    {
+                        if (TryMatchAudience(audienceList[i]))
+                            return true;
+                    }
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    foreach (string validAudience in validationParametersAudiences)
+                    {
+                        if (TryMatchAudience(validAudience))
+                            return true;
+                    }
                 }
             }
 
diff --git a/test/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests.csproj b/test/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests.csproj
index 339a012f98..ae85d7c4b5 100644
--- a/test/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests.csproj
+++ b/test/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests.csproj
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
   <ItemGroup>
     <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Azure.KeyVault.Cryptography" Version="$(MicrosoftAzureKeyVaultCryptographyVersion)" />
     <PackageReference Include="System.Text.RegularExpressions" Version="$(SystemTextRegularExpressions)"/>
-    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Rest.ClientRuntime" Version="$(MicrosoftRestClientRuntimeVersion)"/>
+    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Rest.ClientRuntime" Version="$(MicrosoftRestClientRuntimeVersion)" />
   </ItemGroup>
 
   <ItemGroup>
diff --git a/test/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests/Validation/ValidatorsTests.cs b/test/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests/Validation/ValidatorsTests.cs
index 9d3ab30aad..2e90c50ee4 100644
--- a/test/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests/Validation/ValidatorsTests.cs
+++ b/test/Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Tests/Validation/ValidatorsTests.cs
@@ -270,6 +270,23 @@ public static TheoryData<AudienceValidationTheoryData> ValidateAudienceTheoryDat
                         Audiences = audiences1WithTwoSlashes,
                         ExpectedException = ExpectedException.SecurityTokenInvalidAudienceException("IDX10214:"),
                         TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters{ ValidAudience = audience1 }
+                    },
+                    new AudienceValidationTheoryData("ValidAudiencesList_OptimizedPath")
+                    {
+                        Audiences = new List<string> { "audience1" },
+                        TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters
+                        {
+                            ValidAudiences = new List<string> { "invalidAudience", "audience1" }  // Using List<string> to test IList optimization
+                        }
+                    },
+                    new AudienceValidationTheoryData("ValidAudiencesList_EmptyList_OptimizedPath")
+                    {
+                        Audiences = new List<string> { "audience1" },
+                        ExpectedException = ExpectedException.SecurityTokenInvalidAudienceException("IDX10214:"),
+                        TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters
+                        {
+                            ValidAudiences = new List<string>()  // Empty list should still return false through optimized path
+                        }
                     }
                 };
             }