diff --git a/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Builtin/Runtime.hs b/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Builtin/Runtime.hs
index d96e5c6562d..8adae67b535 100644
--- a/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Builtin/Runtime.hs
+++ b/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Builtin/Runtime.hs
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import Control.Lens (ix, (^?))
 import Control.Monad.Except
 import Data.Array
 import Data.Kind qualified as GHC (Type)
+import GHC.Exts (inline)
 import PlutusCore.Builtin.KnownType
 
 -- | Same as 'TypeScheme' except this one doesn't contain any evaluation-irrelevant types stuff.
@@ -90,13 +91,15 @@ toBuiltinRuntime :: cost -> BuiltinMeaning val cost -> BuiltinRuntime val
 toBuiltinRuntime cost (BuiltinMeaning sch f exF) =
     BuiltinRuntime (typeSchemeToRuntimeScheme sch) f (exF cost)
 
+-- See Note [Inlining meanings of builtins].
 -- | Calculate runtime info for all built-in functions given denotations of builtins
 -- and a cost model.
 toBuiltinsRuntime
     :: (cost ~ CostingPart uni fun, HasConstantIn uni val, ToBuiltinMeaning uni fun)
     => cost -> BuiltinsRuntime fun val
 toBuiltinsRuntime cost =
-    BuiltinsRuntime . tabulateArray $ toBuiltinRuntime cost . toBuiltinMeaning
+    BuiltinsRuntime . tabulateArray $ toBuiltinRuntime cost . inline toBuiltinMeaning
+{-# INLINE toBuiltinsRuntime #-}
 
 -- | Look up the runtime info of a built-in function during evaluation.
 lookupBuiltin
diff --git a/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Default/Builtins.hs b/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Default/Builtins.hs
index 912d4d83699..d33f579f045 100644
--- a/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Default/Builtins.hs
+++ b/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Default/Builtins.hs
@@ -994,6 +994,8 @@ instance uni ~ DefaultUni => ToBuiltinMeaning uni DefaultFun where
         makeBuiltinMeaning
             (\() -> [] @(Data,Data))
             (runCostingFunOneArgument . paramMkNilPairData)
+    -- See Note [Inlining meanings of builtins].
+    {-# INLINE toBuiltinMeaning #-}
 
 -- It's set deliberately to give us "extra room" in the binary format to add things without running
 -- out of space for tags (expanding the space would change the binary format for people who're
diff --git a/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Evaluation/Machine/MachineParameters.hs b/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Evaluation/Machine/MachineParameters.hs
index dc68c5fc5ff..2cd619c076b 100644
--- a/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Evaluation/Machine/MachineParameters.hs
+++ b/plutus-core/plutus-core/src/PlutusCore/Evaluation/Machine/MachineParameters.hs
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import PlutusCore.Builtin
 import PlutusCore.Evaluation.Machine.ExBudget ()
 
 import Control.DeepSeq
+import GHC.Exts (inline)
 import GHC.Generics
 import GHC.Types (Type)
 
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@ data MachineParameters machinecosts term (uni :: Type -> Type) (fun :: Type) =
     deriving stock Generic
     deriving anyclass NFData
 
+-- See Note [Inlining meanings of builtins].
 {-| This just uses 'toBuiltinsRuntime' function to convert a BuiltinCostModel to a BuiltinsRuntime. -}
 mkMachineParameters ::
     ( -- In Cek.Internal we have `type instance UniOf (CekValue uni fun) = uni`, but we don't know that here.
@@ -52,4 +54,5 @@ mkMachineParameters ::
     => CostModel machinecosts builtincosts
     -> MachineParameters machinecosts val uni fun
 mkMachineParameters (CostModel mchnCosts builtinCosts) =
-    MachineParameters mchnCosts (toBuiltinsRuntime builtinCosts)
+    MachineParameters mchnCosts (inline toBuiltinsRuntime builtinCosts)
+{-# INLINE mkMachineParameters #-}
diff --git a/plutus-ledger-api/src/Plutus/V1/Ledger/EvaluationContext.hs b/plutus-ledger-api/src/Plutus/V1/Ledger/EvaluationContext.hs
index 341b3f8caa3..5cdf16c2d9f 100644
--- a/plutus-ledger-api/src/Plutus/V1/Ledger/EvaluationContext.hs
+++ b/plutus-ledger-api/src/Plutus/V1/Ledger/EvaluationContext.hs
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import Data.Map as Map
 import Data.Maybe
 import Data.Set as Set
 import Data.Text qualified as Text
+import GHC.Exts (inline)
 
 -- | An opaque type that contains all the static parameters that the evaluator needs to evaluate a script.
 -- This is so that they can be computed once and cached, rather than recomputed on every evaluation.
@@ -26,13 +27,36 @@ newtype EvaluationContext = EvaluationContext
     { toMachineParameters :: Plutus.MachineParameters CekMachineCosts CekValue DefaultUni DefaultFun }
     deriving newtype NFData
 
+{- Note [Inlining meanings of builtins]
+It's vitally important to inline the 'toBuiltinMeaning' method of a set of built-in functions as
+that allows GHC to look under lambdas and completely optimize multiple abstractions away.
+
+There are two ways of doing that: by relying on 'INLINE' pragmas all the way up from the
+'ToBuiltinMeaning' instance for the default set of builtins or by ensuring that 'toBuiltinsRuntime'
+is compiled efficient by turning it into a one-method class (see
+https://github.com/input-output-hk/plutus/pull/4419 for how that looks like). We chose the former,
+because it's simpler. Although it's also less reliable: machine parameters are computed in
+multiple places and we need to make sure that benchmarking, cost model calculations and the actual
+production path have builtins compiled in the same way, 'cause otherwise performance analysis and
+cost predictions can be wrong by a big margin without us knowing. Because of this danger in addition
+to putting @INLINE@ pragmas on every relevant definition, we also stick a call to 'inline' at the
+call site. We also do not attempt to only compile things efficiently where we need that and instead
+inline the meanins of builtins everywhere. Just to be sure.
+
+Note that a combination of @INLINABLE@ + 'inline' does not result in proper inlining for whatever
+reason. It has to be @INLINE@ (and we add 'inline' on top of that for some additional reliability
+as we did have cases where sticking 'inline' on something that already had @INLINE@ would fix
+inlining).
+-}
+
+-- See Note [Inlining meanings of builtins].
 -- | Build the 'EvaluationContext'.
 --
 -- The input is a `Map` of strings to cost integer values (aka `Plutus.CostModelParams`, `Alonzo.CostModel`)
 mkEvaluationContext :: Plutus.CostModelParams
                     -> Maybe EvaluationContext
 mkEvaluationContext newCMP =
-    EvaluationContext . Plutus.mkMachineParameters <$> Plutus.applyCostModelParams Plutus.defaultCekCostModel newCMP
+    EvaluationContext . inline Plutus.mkMachineParameters <$> Plutus.applyCostModelParams Plutus.defaultCekCostModel newCMP
 
 -- | Comparably expensive to `mkEvaluationContext`, so it should only be used sparingly.
 isCostModelParamsWellFormed :: Plutus.CostModelParams -> Bool