diff --git a/.changeset/dry-foxes-train.md b/.changeset/dry-foxes-train.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..13786c3a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/dry-foxes-train.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@envelop/response-cache': minor
+---
+
+Reduce overhead
diff --git a/packages/plugins/response-cache/src/plugin.ts b/packages/plugins/response-cache/src/plugin.ts
index 679c4eaeb..30800ee39 100644
--- a/packages/plugins/response-cache/src/plugin.ts
+++ b/packages/plugins/response-cache/src/plugin.ts
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import {
   OnExecuteHookResult,
   Plugin,
 } from '@envelop/core';
+import { ExecutionResultWithSerializer } from '@envelop/graphql-jit';
 import {
   getDirective,
   MapperKind,
@@ -495,14 +496,9 @@ export function useResponseCache<PluginContext extends Record<string, any> = {}>
         result: ExecutionResult,
         setResult: (newResult: ExecutionResult) => void,
       ): void {
-        let changed = false;
         if (result.data) {
-          result = { ...result };
-          result.data = removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(
-            result.data as Record<string, unknown>,
-            onEntity,
-          );
-          changed = true;
+          collectEntities(result.data as Record<string, unknown>, onEntity);
+          setStringifyWithoutMetadata(result);
         }
 
         const cacheInstance = cacheFactory(onExecuteParams.args.contextValue);
@@ -523,9 +519,6 @@ export function useResponseCache<PluginContext extends Record<string, any> = {}>
             );
           }
         }
-        if (changed) {
-          setResult(result);
-        }
       }
 
       if (invalidateViaMutation !== false) {
@@ -591,7 +584,8 @@ export function useResponseCache<PluginContext extends Record<string, any> = {}>
                 setResult: (newResult: ExecutionResult) => void,
               ) {
                 if (result.data) {
-                  result.data = removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(result.data, onEntity);
+                  collectEntities(result.data, onEntity);
+                  setStringifyWithoutMetadata(result);
                 }
 
                 // we only use the global ttl if no currentTtl has been determined.
@@ -656,7 +650,7 @@ function handleAsyncIterableResult<PluginContext extends Record<string, any> = {
     onNext(payload) {
       // This is the first result with the initial data payload sent to the client. We use it as the base result
       if (payload.result.data) {
-        result.data = payload.result.data;
+        result.data = structuredClone(payload.result.data);
       }
       if (payload.result.errors) {
         result.errors = payload.result.errors;
@@ -669,7 +663,10 @@ function handleAsyncIterableResult<PluginContext extends Record<string, any> = {
         const { incremental, hasNext } = payload.result;
         if (incremental) {
           for (const patch of incremental) {
-            mergeIncrementalResult({ executionResult: result, incrementalResult: patch });
+            mergeIncrementalResult({
+              executionResult: result,
+              incrementalResult: structuredClone(patch),
+            });
           }
         }
 
@@ -679,32 +676,24 @@ function handleAsyncIterableResult<PluginContext extends Record<string, any> = {
         }
       }
 
-      const newResult = { ...payload.result };
-
-      // Handle initial/single result
-      if (newResult.data) {
-        newResult.data = removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(newResult.data);
+      if (payload.result.data) {
+        collectEntities(payload.result.data);
       }
 
       // Handle Incremental results
-      if ('hasNext' in newResult && newResult.incremental) {
-        newResult.incremental = newResult.incremental.map(value => {
+      if ('hasNext' in payload.result && payload.result.incremental) {
+        payload.result.incremental = payload.result.incremental.map(value => {
           if ('items' in value && value.items) {
-            return {
-              ...value,
-              items: removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(value.items),
-            };
+            collectEntities(value.items);
           }
           if ('data' in value && value.data) {
-            return {
-              ...value,
-              data: removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(value.data),
-            };
+            collectEntities(value.data);
           }
           return value;
         });
       }
-      payload.setResult(newResult);
+
+      setStringifyWithoutMetadata(result);
     },
   };
 }
@@ -764,64 +753,64 @@ type OnEntityHandler = (
   data: Record<string, unknown>,
 ) => void | Promise<void>;
 
-function removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(
-  data: Record<string, unknown>,
-  onEntity?: OnEntityHandler,
-): Record<string, unknown>;
-function removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(
-  data: Array<Record<string, unknown>>,
-  onEntity?: OnEntityHandler,
-): Array<Record<string, unknown>>;
-function removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(
-  data: null | undefined,
-  onEntity?: OnEntityHandler,
-): null | undefined;
-function removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(
+function collectEntities(data: Record<string, unknown>, onEntity?: OnEntityHandler): void;
+function collectEntities(data: Array<Record<string, unknown>>, onEntity?: OnEntityHandler): void;
+function collectEntities(data: null | undefined, onEntity?: OnEntityHandler): void;
+function collectEntities(
   data: Record<string, unknown> | Array<Record<string, unknown>> | null | undefined,
   onEntity?: OnEntityHandler,
-): Record<string, unknown> | Array<unknown> | null | undefined {
+): void {
   if (Array.isArray(data)) {
-    return data.map(record => removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(record, onEntity));
+    for (const record of data) {
+      collectEntities(record, onEntity);
+    }
+    return;
   }
 
   if (typeof data !== 'object' || data == null) {
-    return data;
+    return;
   }
 
   const dataPrototype = Object.getPrototypeOf(data);
 
-  if (dataPrototype != null && dataPrototype !== Object.prototype) {
-    return data;
+  // TODO: For some reason, when running in Jest, `structuredClone` result have a weird prototype
+  //       that doesn't equal Object.prototype as it should.
+  //       As a workaround, we can just check that there is no parent prototype, which should be
+  //       the case only when it's the Object prototype
+  //       Rollback once migrated to Bun or vitest
+  //
+  // if (dataPrototype != null && dataPrototype !== Object.prototype) {
+  if (dataPrototype != null && Object.getPrototypeOf(dataPrototype) !== null) {
+    // It is not a plain object, like a Date, don't inspect further
+    return;
   }
 
-  // clone the data to avoid mutation
-  data = { ...data };
-
   const typename = data.__responseCacheTypeName ?? data.__typename;
   if (typeof typename === 'string') {
     const entity: CacheEntityRecord = { typename };
-    delete data.__responseCacheTypeName;
 
     if (
       data.__responseCacheId &&
       (typeof data.__responseCacheId === 'string' || typeof data.__responseCacheId === 'number')
     ) {
       entity.id = data.__responseCacheId;
-      delete data.__responseCacheId;
     }
 
     onEntity?.(entity, data);
   }
 
   for (const key in data) {
-    const value = data[key];
-    if (Array.isArray(value)) {
-      data[key] = removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(value, onEntity);
-    }
-    if (value !== null && typeof value === 'object') {
-      data[key] = removeMetadataFieldsFromResult(value as Record<string, unknown>, onEntity);
-    }
+    collectEntities(data[key] as any, onEntity);
   }
-
-  return data;
 }
+
+const setStringifyWithoutMetadata = (result: ExecutionResultWithSerializer) => {
+  result.stringify = stringifyWithoutMetadata;
+  return result;
+};
+
+const stringifyWithoutMetadata: ExecutionResultWithSerializer['stringify'] = result => {
+  return JSON.stringify(result, (key: string, value: unknown) =>
+    key === '__responseCacheId' || key === '__responseCacheTypeName' ? undefined : value,
+  );
+};