diff --git a/.changes/next-release/feature-AWSSDKforJavav2-d4e19d2.json b/.changes/next-release/feature-AWSSDKforJavav2-d4e19d2.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1490f7d94aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/next-release/feature-AWSSDKforJavav2-d4e19d2.json
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+{
+    "type": "feature",
+    "category": "AWS SDK for Java v2",
+    "contributor": "",
+    "description": "Avoid extra byte array copying when downloading to memory with AsyncResponseTransformer"
+}
diff --git a/core/sdk-core/src/main/java/software/amazon/awssdk/core/internal/async/ByteArrayAsyncResponseTransformer.java b/core/sdk-core/src/main/java/software/amazon/awssdk/core/internal/async/ByteArrayAsyncResponseTransformer.java
index d1103ea2a2d..4d0fd4f33ab 100644
--- a/core/sdk-core/src/main/java/software/amazon/awssdk/core/internal/async/ByteArrayAsyncResponseTransformer.java
+++ b/core/sdk-core/src/main/java/software/amazon/awssdk/core/internal/async/ByteArrayAsyncResponseTransformer.java
@@ -47,7 +47,9 @@ public final class ByteArrayAsyncResponseTransformer<ResponseT> implements
     @Override
     public CompletableFuture<ResponseBytes<ResponseT>> prepare() {
         cf = new CompletableFuture<>();
-        return cf.thenApply(arr -> ResponseBytes.fromByteArray(response, arr));
+        // Using fromByteArrayUnsafe() to avoid unnecessary extra copying of byte array. The data writing has completed and the
+        // byte array will not be further modified so this is safe
+        return cf.thenApply(arr -> ResponseBytes.fromByteArrayUnsafe(response, arr));
     }
 
     @Override