Object Pooling in ASP.NET Core

If your application allocates large objects frequently, object pooling might save you more headaches than you'd expect.

The idea is simple: instead of creating and destroying objects repeatedly, you reuse them. For objects that are expensive to create, this reduces memory allocation overhead and keeps the garbage collector from working overtime.

In ASP.NET Core, this is handled by ObjectPool<T> in Microsoft.Extensions.ObjectPool. You call Get to borrow an object, use it, then call Return to put it back. If the pool is empty, a new object gets created. If you need to reset state between uses, your object can implement IResettable.

That's it. No magic.

Object pooling shines when you're allocating large objects frequently and seeing GC pressure as a result. But it's not free. You're trading allocation cost for pool management complexity. If your objects are small and cheap to create, pooling just adds overhead without benefit.

Measure first. Pool second.