diff --git a/web/apps/photos/src/components/Search/SearchBar/searchInput/index.tsx b/web/apps/photos/src/components/Search/SearchBar/searchInput/index.tsx
index 18b7289915..a41983d5c3 100644
--- a/web/apps/photos/src/components/Search/SearchBar/searchInput/index.tsx
+++ b/web/apps/photos/src/components/Search/SearchBar/searchInput/index.tsx
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import AsyncSelect from "react-select/async";
 import { InputActionMeta } from "react-select/src/types";
 import { City } from "services/locationSearchService";
 import {
+    clearSearchCaches,
     getAutoCompleteSuggestions,
     getDefaultOptions,
 } from "services/searchService";
@@ -97,6 +98,7 @@ export default function SearchInput(props: Iprops) {
             props.setIsOpen(false);
             setValue(null);
             setQuery("");
+            clearSearchCaches();
         }
     };
 
diff --git a/web/apps/photos/src/services/searchService.ts b/web/apps/photos/src/services/searchService.ts
index 76b1d5cb2b..35e4015cc1 100644
--- a/web/apps/photos/src/services/searchService.ts
+++ b/web/apps/photos/src/services/searchService.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { isDesktop } from "@/base/app";
 import log from "@/base/log";
 import { FileType } from "@/media/file-type";
 import {
+    clearCachedCLIPIndexes,
     clipMatches,
     isMLEnabled,
     isMLSupported,
@@ -61,6 +62,10 @@ export const getAutoCompleteSuggestions =
         }
     };
 
+export const clearSearchCaches = async () => {
+    await clearCachedCLIPIndexes();
+};
+
 async function convertSuggestionsToOptions(
     suggestions: Suggestion[],
 ): Promise<SearchOption[]> {
diff --git a/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/clip.ts b/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/clip.ts
index e81036ae56..c4e9ff6692 100644
--- a/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/clip.ts
+++ b/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/clip.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import type { ElectronMLWorker } from "@/base/types/ipc";
 import type { ImageBitmapAndData } from "./blob";
 import { clipIndexes } from "./db";
 import { pixelRGBBilinear } from "./image";
-import { dotProduct, norm } from "./math";
+import { dotProductF32, normF32 } from "./math";
 import type { CLIPMatches } from "./worker-types";
 
 /**
@@ -106,13 +106,13 @@ export const indexCLIP = async (
     image: ImageBitmapAndData,
     electron: ElectronMLWorker,
 ): Promise<CLIPIndex> => ({
-    embedding: await computeEmbedding(image.data, electron),
+    embedding: Array.from(await computeEmbedding(image.data, electron)),
 });
 
 const computeEmbedding = async (
     imageData: ImageData,
     electron: ElectronMLWorker,
-): Promise<number[]> => {
+): Promise<Float32Array> => {
     const clipInput = convertToCLIPInput(imageData);
     return normalized(await electron.computeCLIPImageEmbedding(clipInput));
 };
@@ -158,9 +158,8 @@ const convertToCLIPInput = (imageData: ImageData) => {
 };
 
 const normalized = (embedding: Float32Array) => {
-    const nums = Array.from(embedding);
-    const n = norm(nums);
-    return nums.map((v) => v / n);
+    const n = normF32(embedding);
+    return embedding.map((v) => v / n);
 };
 
 /**
@@ -177,17 +176,42 @@ export const clipMatches = async (
     if (!t) return undefined;
 
     const textEmbedding = normalized(t);
-    const items = (await clipIndexes()).map(
+    const items = (await cachedOrReadCLIPIndexes()).map(
         ({ fileID, embedding }) =>
             // What we want to do is `cosineSimilarity`, but since both the
             // embeddings involved are already normalized, we can save the norm
             // calculations and directly do their `dotProduct`.
             //
             // This code is on the hot path, so these optimizations help.
-            [fileID, dotProduct(embedding, textEmbedding)] as const,
+            [fileID, dotProductF32(embedding, textEmbedding)] as const,
     );
+
     // This score threshold was obtain heuristically. 0.2 generally gives solid
     // results, and around 0.15 we start getting many false positives (all this
     // is query dependent too).
     return new Map(items.filter(([, score]) => score >= 0.175));
 };
+
+let _cachedCLIPIndexes:
+    | { fileID: number; embedding: Float32Array }[]
+    | undefined;
+
+/**
+ * Cache the CLIP indexes for the duration of a "search session" to avoid
+ * converting them from number[] to Float32Array during the match.
+ *
+ * Converting them to Float32Array gives a big performance boost (See: [Note:
+ * Dot product performance]). But doing that each time loses out on the
+ * amortized benefit, so this temporary cache is as attempt to alleviate that.
+ *
+ * Once the user is done searching (for now), call
+ * {@link clearCachedCLIPIndexes}.
+ */
+const cachedOrReadCLIPIndexes = async () =>
+    _cachedCLIPIndexes ??
+    (await clipIndexes()).map(({ fileID, embedding }) => ({
+        fileID,
+        embedding: new Float32Array(embedding),
+    }));
+
+export const clearCachedCLIPIndexes = () => (_cachedCLIPIndexes = undefined);
diff --git a/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/index.ts b/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/index.ts
index 97ed45c7ea..24305fdba6 100644
--- a/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/index.ts
+++ b/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/index.ts
@@ -602,6 +602,12 @@ export const clipMatches = (
 ): Promise<CLIPMatches | undefined> =>
     worker().then((w) => w.clipMatches(searchPhrase));
 
+/**
+ * Clear any cached intermediate state created during a search session.
+ */
+export const clearCachedCLIPIndexes = () =>
+    worker().then((w) => w.clearCachedCLIPIndexes());
+
 /**
  * Return the IDs of all the faces in the given {@link enteFile} that are not
  * associated with a person cluster.
diff --git a/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/math.ts b/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/math.ts
index 7da08b3163..c34385cc07 100644
--- a/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/math.ts
+++ b/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/math.ts
@@ -43,7 +43,6 @@ export const dotProductF32 = (v1: Float32Array, v2: Float32Array) => {
     return d;
 };
 
-
 /**
  * Return the L2-norm ("magnitude") of the given vector.
  *
@@ -54,6 +53,9 @@ export const dotProductF32 = (v1: Float32Array, v2: Float32Array) => {
 export const norm = (v: number[]) =>
     Math.sqrt(v.reduce((a, x) => a + x * x, 0));
 
+export const normF32 = (v: Float32Array) =>
+    Math.sqrt(v.reduce((a, x) => a + x * x, 0));
+
 /**
  * Return the cosine similarity of the two given vectors.
  *
diff --git a/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/worker.ts b/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/worker.ts
index 7b80d3282d..6408188769 100644
--- a/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/worker.ts
+++ b/web/packages/new/photos/services/ml/worker.ts
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import {
     type ImageBitmapAndData,
 } from "./blob";
 import {
+    clearCachedCLIPIndexes,
     clipIndexingVersion,
     clipMatches,
     indexCLIP,
@@ -195,6 +196,13 @@ export class MLWorker {
         return clipMatches(searchPhrase, ensure(this.electron));
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Clear cached intermediate state preserved during a search "session".
+     */
+    clearCachedCLIPIndexes() {
+        clearCachedCLIPIndexes();
+    }
+
     private async tick() {
         log.debug(() => [
             "ml/tick",