diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-04-19-23-29-38.gh-issue-148762.HSCJka.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-04-19-23-29-38.gh-issue-148762.HSCJka.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..e7e3de7a96cbd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-04-19-23-29-38.gh-issue-148762.HSCJka.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Multiline regexes starting with a caret, such as ``re.compile("^foo",
+re.MULTILINE)``, now run significantly faster.
diff --git a/Modules/_sre/sre_lib.h b/Modules/_sre/sre_lib.h
index df377905bfae0d..739ca5d9211d74 100644
--- a/Modules/_sre/sre_lib.h
+++ b/Modules/_sre/sre_lib.h
@@ -1854,12 +1854,41 @@ SRE(search)(SRE_STATE* state, SRE_CODE* pattern)
             state->start = state->ptr = ptr = end;
             return 0;
         }
-        while (status == 0 && ptr < end) {
-            ptr++;
-            RESET_CAPTURE_GROUP();
-            TRACE(("|%p|%p|SEARCH\n", pattern, ptr));
-            state->start = state->ptr = ptr;
-            status = SRE(match)(state, pattern, 0);
+        if (pattern[0] == SRE_OP_AT && pattern[1] == SRE_AT_BEGINNING_LINE) {
+            /* skip to line boundaries */
+            while (status == 0 && ptr < end) {
+                ptr++;
+                if (!SRE_IS_LINEBREAK((int) ptr[-1])) {
+#if SIZEOF_SRE_CHAR == 1
+                    ptr = (SRE_CHAR *)memchr(ptr, '\n', end - ptr);
+                    if (!ptr) {
+                        break;
+                    }
+#else
+                    while (ptr < end && !SRE_IS_LINEBREAK((int) *ptr)) {
+                        ptr++;
+                    }
+                    if (ptr >= end) {
+                        break;
+                    }
+#endif
+                    /* advance to after the new line character */
+                    ptr++;
+                }
+                RESET_CAPTURE_GROUP();
+                TRACE(("|%p|%p|SEARCH\n", pattern, ptr));
+                state->start = state->ptr = ptr;
+                status = SRE(match)(state, pattern, 0);
+            }
+        }
+        else {
+            while (status == 0 && ptr < end) {
+                ptr++;
+                RESET_CAPTURE_GROUP();
+                TRACE(("|%p|%p|SEARCH\n", pattern, ptr));
+                state->start = state->ptr = ptr;
+                status = SRE(match)(state, pattern, 0);
+            }
         }
     }