diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 74ea0871..edbd902c 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -30,34 +30,35 @@ const (
 )
 
 type args struct {
-	CwdMode               *string
-	CwdMaxDepth           *int
-	CwdMaxDirSize         *int
-	ColorizeHostname      *bool
-	HostnameOnlyIfSSH     *bool
-	SshAlternateIcon      *bool
-	EastAsianWidth        *bool
-	PromptOnNewLine       *bool
-	StaticPromptIndicator *bool
-	Mode                  *string
-	Theme                 *string
-	Shell                 *string
-	Modules               *string
-	ModulesRight          *string
-	Priority              *string
-	MaxWidthPercentage    *int
-	TruncateSegmentWidth  *int
-	PrevError             *int
-	NumericExitCodes      *bool
-	IgnoreRepos           *string
-	ShortenGKENames       *bool
-	ShortenEKSNames       *bool
-	ShellVar              *string
-	PathAliases           *string
-	Duration              *string
-	DurationMin           *string
-	Eval                  *bool
-	Condensed             *bool
+	CwdMode                *string
+	CwdMaxDepth            *int
+	CwdMaxDirSize          *int
+	ColorizeHostname       *bool
+	HostnameOnlyIfSSH      *bool
+	SshAlternateIcon       *bool
+	EastAsianWidth         *bool
+	PromptOnNewLine        *bool
+	StaticPromptIndicator  *bool
+	GitAssumeUnchangedSize *int64
+	Mode                   *string
+	Theme                  *string
+	Shell                  *string
+	Modules                *string
+	ModulesRight           *string
+	Priority               *string
+	MaxWidthPercentage     *int
+	TruncateSegmentWidth   *int
+	PrevError              *int
+	NumericExitCodes       *bool
+	IgnoreRepos            *string
+	ShortenGKENames        *bool
+	ShortenEKSNames        *bool
+	ShellVar               *string
+	PathAliases            *string
+	Duration               *string
+	DurationMin            *string
+	Eval                   *bool
+	Condensed              *bool
 }
 
 func warn(msg string) {
@@ -174,6 +175,10 @@ func main() {
 			"static-prompt-indicator",
 			false,
 			comments("Always show the prompt indicator with the default color, never with the error color")),
+		GitAssumeUnchangedSize: flag.Int64(
+			"git-assume-unchanged-size",
+			2048,
+			comments("Disable checking for changed/edited files in git repositories where the index is larger than this size (in KB), improves performance")),
 		Mode: flag.String(
 			"mode",
 			"patched",
diff --git a/segment-git.go b/segment-git.go
index 5961bc4b..b2cdc291 100644
--- a/segment-git.go
+++ b/segment-git.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	pwl "github.com/justjanne/powerline-go/powerline"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
+	"path"
 	"regexp"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
@@ -127,19 +128,43 @@ func parseGitStats(status []string) repoStats {
 	return stats
 }
 
+func repoRoot(path string) (string, error) {
+	out, err := runGitCommand("git", "rev-parse", "--show-toplevel")
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	return strings.TrimSpace(out), nil
+}
+
+func indexSize(root string) (int64, error) {
+	fileInfo, err := os.Stat(path.Join(root, ".git", "index"))
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, err
+	}
+
+	return fileInfo.Size(), nil
+}
+
 func segmentGit(p *powerline) []pwl.Segment {
-	if len(p.ignoreRepos) > 0 {
-		out, err := runGitCommand("git", "rev-parse", "--show-toplevel")
-		if err != nil {
-			return []pwl.Segment{}
-		}
-		out = strings.TrimSpace(out)
-		if p.ignoreRepos[out] {
-			return []pwl.Segment{}
-		}
+	repoRoot, err := repoRoot(p.cwd)
+	if err != nil {
+		return []pwl.Segment{}
+	}
+
+	if len(p.ignoreRepos) > 0 && p.ignoreRepos[repoRoot] {
+		return []pwl.Segment{}
+	}
+
+	indexSize, err := indexSize(p.cwd)
+	args := []string{
+		"status", "--porcelain", "-b", "--ignore-submodules",
+	}
+
+	if *p.args.GitAssumeUnchangedSize > 0 && indexSize > (*p.args.GitAssumeUnchangedSize*1024) {
+		args = append(args, "-uno")
 	}
 
-	out, err := runGitCommand("git", "status", "--porcelain", "-b", "--ignore-submodules")
+	out, err := runGitCommand("git", args...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return []pwl.Segment{}
 	}