diff --git a/database.go b/database.go
index 372cc37821..ca087a6639 100644
--- a/database.go
+++ b/database.go
@@ -1308,18 +1308,37 @@ func (db *database) continuousQueryByName(name string) *ContinuousQuery {
 
 // used to convert the tag set to bytes for use as a lookup key
 func marshalTags(tags map[string]string) []byte {
-	s := make([]string, 0, len(tags))
-	// pull out keys to sort
-	for k := range tags {
-		s = append(s, k)
+	// Empty maps marshal to empty bytes.
+	if len(tags) == 0 {
+		return nil
 	}
-	sort.Strings(s)
 
-	// now append on the key values in key sorted order
-	for _, k := range s {
-		s = append(s, tags[k])
+	// Extract keys and determine final size.
+	sz := (len(tags) * 2) - 1 // separators
+	keys := make([]string, 0, len(tags))
+	for k, v := range tags {
+		keys = append(keys, k)
+		sz += len(k) + len(v)
 	}
-	return []byte(strings.Join(s, "|"))
+	sort.Strings(keys)
+
+	// Generate marshaled bytes.
+	b := make([]byte, sz)
+	buf := b
+	for _, k := range keys {
+		copy(buf, k)
+		buf[len(k)] = '|'
+		buf = buf[len(k)+1:]
+	}
+	for i, k := range keys {
+		v := tags[k]
+		copy(buf, v)
+		if i < len(keys)-1 {
+			buf[len(v)] = '|'
+			buf = buf[len(v)+1:]
+		}
+	}
+	return b
 }
 
 // timeBetweenInclusive returns true if t is between min and max, inclusive.
diff --git a/internal_test.go b/internal_test.go
index 6406f594bd..cb74408755 100644
--- a/internal_test.go
+++ b/internal_test.go
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ package influxdb
 // This file is run within the "influxdb" package and allows for internal unit tests.
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
+	"fmt"
 	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
@@ -310,6 +312,53 @@ func TestShardGroup_Contains(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// Ensure tags can be marshaled into a byte slice.
+func TestMarshalTags(t *testing.T) {
+	for i, tt := range []struct {
+		tags   map[string]string
+		result []byte
+	}{
+		{
+			tags:   nil,
+			result: nil,
+		},
+		{
+			tags:   map[string]string{"foo": "bar"},
+			result: []byte(`foo|bar`),
+		},
+		{
+			tags:   map[string]string{"foo": "bar", "baz": "battttt"},
+			result: []byte(`baz|foo|battttt|bar`),
+		},
+	} {
+		result := marshalTags(tt.tags)
+		if !bytes.Equal(result, tt.result) {
+			t.Fatalf("%d. unexpected result: exp=%s, got=%s", i, tt.result, result)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func BenchmarkMarshalTags_KeyN1(b *testing.B)  { benchmarkMarshalTags(b, 1) }
+func BenchmarkMarshalTags_KeyN3(b *testing.B)  { benchmarkMarshalTags(b, 3) }
+func BenchmarkMarshalTags_KeyN5(b *testing.B)  { benchmarkMarshalTags(b, 5) }
+func BenchmarkMarshalTags_KeyN10(b *testing.B) { benchmarkMarshalTags(b, 10) }
+
+func benchmarkMarshalTags(b *testing.B, keyN int) {
+	const keySize, valueSize = 8, 15
+
+	// Generate tag map.
+	tags := make(map[string]string)
+	for i := 0; i < keyN; i++ {
+		tags[fmt.Sprintf("%0*d", keySize, i)] = fmt.Sprintf("%0*d", valueSize, i)
+	}
+
+	// Unmarshal map into byte slice.
+	b.ReportAllocs()
+	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+		marshalTags(tags)
+	}
+}
+
 // MustParseExpr parses an expression string and returns its AST representation.
 func MustParseExpr(s string) influxql.Expr {
 	expr, err := influxql.ParseExpr(s)