diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6d37da44d4b..2066394c9b6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+### Improvements
+
+- Skip building Android manifest metadata debug log messages when debug logging is disabled, reducing allocations during SDK init ([#5790](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java/pull/5790))
+
 ### Fixes
 
 - Backfill release, environment, distribution, tags, and app version/build—and use the matching replay-on-error sample rate—for `ApplicationExitInfo` ANR and native crash events captured before SDK initialization, without reusing options cached by a later app update ([#5762](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java/pull/5762))
diff --git a/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/ManifestMetadataReader.java b/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/ManifestMetadataReader.java
index 7a9cd8a4d13..469f15e3f3b 100644
--- a/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/ManifestMetadataReader.java
+++ b/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/ManifestMetadataReader.java
@@ -779,7 +779,9 @@ private static boolean readBool(
       final @NotNull String key,
       final boolean defaultValue) {
     final boolean value = metadata.getBoolean(key, defaultValue);
-    logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    if (logger.isEnabled(SentryLevel.DEBUG)) {
+      logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    }
     return value;
   }
 
@@ -789,7 +791,9 @@ private static boolean readBool(
       final @NotNull String key,
       final @Nullable String defaultValue) {
     final String value = metadata.getString(key, defaultValue);
-    logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    if (logger.isEnabled(SentryLevel.DEBUG)) {
+      logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    }
     return value;
   }
 
@@ -799,14 +803,18 @@ private static boolean readBool(
       final @NotNull String key,
       final @NotNull String defaultValue) {
     final String value = metadata.getString(key, defaultValue);
-    logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    if (logger.isEnabled(SentryLevel.DEBUG)) {
+      logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    }
     return value;
   }
 
   private static @Nullable List<String> readList(
       final @NotNull Bundle metadata, final @NotNull ILogger logger, final @NotNull String key) {
     final String value = metadata.getString(key);
-    logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    if (logger.isEnabled(SentryLevel.DEBUG)) {
+      logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    }
     if (value != null) {
       return Arrays.asList(value.split(",", -1));
     } else {
@@ -821,7 +829,9 @@ private static double readDouble(
     if (value == -1) {
       value = ((Integer) metadata.getInt(key, -1)).doubleValue();
     }
-    logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    if (logger.isEnabled(SentryLevel.DEBUG)) {
+      logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    }
     return value;
   }
 
@@ -832,7 +842,9 @@ private static long readLong(
       final long defaultValue) {
     // manifest meta-data only reads int if the value is not big enough
     final long value = metadata.getInt(key, (int) defaultValue);
-    logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    if (logger.isEnabled(SentryLevel.DEBUG)) {
+      logger.log(SentryLevel.DEBUG, key + " read: " + value);
+    }
     return value;
   }