diff --git a/src/basic/sort-util.c b/src/basic/sort-util.c
index 2859f14376..a76a6c85a8 100644
--- a/src/basic/sort-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/sort-util.c
@@ -65,15 +65,19 @@ void qsort_r_safe(void *base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, comparison_userdata_fn_
 }
 
 int cmp_int(const int *a, const int *b) {
-        assert(a);
-        assert(b);
+        /* This is called from qsort()s inner loops. Correctly implemented qsort will never pass NULL so we
+           just suppress the check via POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL instead of assert() to avoid the runtime cost. */
+        POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL(a);
+        POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL(b);
 
         return CMP(*a, *b);
 }
 
 int cmp_uint16(const uint16_t *a, const uint16_t *b) {
-        assert(a);
-        assert(b);
+        /* This is called from qsort()s inner loops. Correctly implemented qsort will never pass NULL so we
+           just suppress the check via POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL instead of assert() to avoid the runtime cost. */
+        POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL(a);
+        POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL(b);
 
         return CMP(*a, *b);
 }
diff --git a/src/basic/strv.c b/src/basic/strv.c
index 5e4d46bde4..4044a129c6 100644
--- a/src/basic/strv.c
+++ b/src/basic/strv.c
@@ -844,8 +844,10 @@ bool strv_overlap(char * const *a, char * const *b) {
 }
 
 static int str_compare(char * const *a, char * const *b) {
-        assert(a);
-        assert(b);
+        /* This is called from qsort()s inner loops. Correctly implemented qsort will never pass NULL so we
+           just suppress the check via POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL instead of assert() to avoid the runtime cost. */
+        POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL(a);
+        POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL(b);
 
         return strcmp(*a, *b);
 }
diff --git a/src/core/job.c b/src/core/job.c
index 638e6e759e..7dd8a4617d 100644
--- a/src/core/job.c
+++ b/src/core/job.c
@@ -1525,10 +1525,10 @@ void job_add_to_gc_queue(Job *j) {
 }
 
 static int job_compare_id(Job * const *a, Job * const *b) {
-        assert(a);
-        assert(b);
-        assert(*a);
-        assert(*b);
+        /* This is called from qsort()s inner loops. Correctly implemented qsort will never pass NULL so we
+           just suppress the check via POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL instead of assert() to avoid the runtime cost. */
+        POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL(a);
+        POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL(b);
 
         return CMP((*a)->id, (*b)->id);
 }
diff --git a/src/shared/format-table.c b/src/shared/format-table.c
index eb1866e8d4..55e19ebd70 100644
--- a/src/shared/format-table.c
+++ b/src/shared/format-table.c
@@ -1543,8 +1543,10 @@ static int cell_data_compare(TableData *a, size_t index_a, TableData *b, size_t
 static int table_data_compare(const size_t *a, const size_t *b, Table *t) {
         int r;
 
-        assert(a);
-        assert(b);
+        /* This is called from qsort()s inner loops. Correctly implemented qsort will never pass NULL so we
+           just suppress the check via POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL instead of assert() to avoid the runtime cost. */
+        POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL(a);
+        POINTER_MAY_BE_NULL(b);
         assert(t);
         assert(t->sort_map);