diff --git a/.jules/bolt.md b/.jules/bolt.md
index 1d2f017a..e4d0a7f3 100644
--- a/.jules/bolt.md
+++ b/.jules/bolt.md
@@ -63,3 +63,6 @@
 ## 2024-07-30 - Avoid chained string replace when checking character sets
 **Learning:** Using chained `.replace(a, "").replace(b, "")` to check if a string consists entirely of specific characters requires intermediate string allocations for every call. In benchmarks, using `.strip("ab")` is ~30% faster and avoids multiple allocations in the hot path.
 **Action:** When checking if a string is solely composed of specific characters, use `.strip(chars)` instead of chained `.replace()` calls to improve performance.
+## 2026-07-16 - [FastAPI Upload Chunk Size Optimization]
+**Learning:** In FastAPI, using the default 8KB chunk size for `await file.read()` when handling large uploads (e.g. 20MB) causes excessive asynchronous loop iterations, leading to high CPU overhead and slow upload speeds due to SpooledTemporaryFile underlying mechanics.
+**Action:** For endpoints that accept large file uploads, increase the chunk size (e.g., to 1MB) in the `file.read(chunk_size)` loop to drastically reduce iteration overhead while maintaining bounded memory usage.
diff --git a/src/newsdom_api/main.py b/src/newsdom_api/main.py
index 4efdad56..25732270 100644
--- a/src/newsdom_api/main.py
+++ b/src/newsdom_api/main.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 from .service import parse_pdf
 
 MAX_PARSE_UPLOAD_BYTES = 20 * 1024 * 1024
+UPLOAD_READ_CHUNK_BYTES = 1024 * 1024
 UNSUPPORTED_MEDIA_DETAIL = "Unsupported Media Type"
 PAYLOAD_TOO_LARGE_DETAIL = "Payload Too Large"
 INVALID_PARSE_PARAMS_DETAIL = "Invalid parse parameters"
@@ -250,7 +251,8 @@ async def parse(
             tmp.write(header)
 
             bytes_read = len(header)
-            while chunk := await file.read(8192):
+            # ⚡ Bolt: Increase chunk size to 1MB to significantly reduce async loop iteration overhead
+            while chunk := await file.read(UPLOAD_READ_CHUNK_BYTES):
                 bytes_read += len(chunk)
                 if bytes_read > MAX_PARSE_UPLOAD_BYTES:
                     LOGGER.warning(
diff --git a/tests/test_parse_endpoint.py b/tests/test_parse_endpoint.py
index 1491ada0..882a872e 100644
--- a/tests/test_parse_endpoint.py
+++ b/tests/test_parse_endpoint.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 from newsdom_api import mineru_runner
 from newsdom_api.main import (
     MAX_PARSE_UPLOAD_BYTES,
+    UPLOAD_READ_CHUNK_BYTES,
     app,
     parse,
     _validate_pdf_structure,
@@ -555,3 +556,16 @@ def spy_unlink(self, missing_ok=False):
     # We should have unlinked exactly one file, which should be in the temp directory
     assert len(unlinked_paths) == 1
     assert "tmp" in unlinked_paths[0].lower() or "temp" in unlinked_paths[0].lower()
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_parse_endpoint_reads_with_correct_chunk_size(monkeypatch):
+    upload = _ReadTrackingUpload(b"%PDF-" + (b"x" * 1024 * 1024))
+    monkeypatch.setattr("newsdom_api.main.parse_pdf", lambda *args, **kwargs: None)
+    monkeypatch.setattr("newsdom_api.main._validate_pdf_structure", lambda _: None)
+
+    await parse(upload)
+
+    assert len(upload.read_sizes) >= 2
+    assert upload.read_sizes[0] == 5
+    assert upload.read_sizes[1] == UPLOAD_READ_CHUNK_BYTES