diff --git a/docs/changelog.md b/docs/changelog.md
index 7926ab4aa..40fb325b5 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.md
+++ b/docs/changelog.md
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ See the [Contributing Guide](contributing.md) for details.
 * Fix quadratic processing time in the `tables` extension for long blocks which
   are split into many smaller blocks, such as many headers with no blank lines
   between them (#1704).
+* Fix quadratic processing time for documents with many unclosed HTML start
+  tags, such as `a<b` with no `>` after it.
 
 ## [3.11.3] - 2026-11-05
 
diff --git a/markdown/htmlparser.py b/markdown/htmlparser.py
index 78c9e04fb..20c3002ec 100644
--- a/markdown/htmlparser.py
+++ b/markdown/htmlparser.py
@@ -88,6 +88,20 @@
    >?
 """, re.VERBOSE)
 
+# The parts of `locatetagend` as matched one at a time by `HTMLExtractor.check_for_whole_start_tag`:
+# the tag name and the whitespace after it, and then each attribute and the whitespace after it.
+tagname_re = re.compile(r'([a-zA-Z][^`\t\n\r\f />]*)[\t\n\r\f /]*')
+attr_re = re.compile(r"""
+  (?<=['"\t\n\r\f /])[^`\t\n\r\f />][^\t\n\r\f /=>]*  # attribute name
+  (?:=                            # value indicator
+    (?:'[^']*'                    # LITA-enclosed value
+      |"[^"]*"                    # LIT-enclosed value
+      |(?!['"])[^>\t\n\r\f ]*     # bare value
+     )
+   )?
+  [\t\n\r\f /]*                   # possibly followed by a space
+""", re.VERBOSE)
+
 # Match a blank line at the start of a block of text (two newlines).
 # The newlines may be preceded by additional whitespace.
 blank_line_re = re.compile(r'^([ ]*\n){2}')
@@ -160,6 +174,9 @@ def reset(self):
         self.lineno_start_cache = [0]
         # The `rawdata` and position of the last failed search for a comment close.
         self._no_commentclose: tuple[str | None, int] = (None, 0)
+        # The `rawdata`, the start and end of the tag name of the last unclosed start tag, and the
+        # positions from which the attributes of a start tag are known to run out without a closing `>`.
+        self._unclosed_tag: tuple[str | None, int, int, set[int]] = (None, 0, 0, set())
 
         super().reset()
 
@@ -402,6 +419,37 @@ def parse_bogus_comment(self, i: int, report: int = 0) -> int:
         self.handle_empty_tag(self.rawdata[i:pos], is_block=False)
         return pos
 
+    def check_for_whole_start_tag(self, i: int) -> int:
+        """
+        Return the end of the start tag at `i`, or `-1` if it has no closing `>`.
+
+        This matches the same text as `locatetagend`, one attribute at a time. An unclosed start tag is
+        passed through as text, so each `<` within it is checked next. To avoid scanning the rest of the
+        text again for each of those, remember where the last unclosed tag name ends and where attributes
+        are known to run out without a closing `>`.
+        """
+        rawdata = self.rawdata
+        if self._unclosed_tag[0] is not rawdata:
+            self._unclosed_tag = (rawdata, 0, 0, set())
+        _, name_start, name_end, unclosed = self._unclosed_tag
+        if name_start <= i + 1 < name_end:
+            # This tag name ends where the unclosed one does, so the rest is the same.
+            return -1
+        name = tagname_re.match(rawdata, i + 1)
+        j = name.end()
+        seen = []
+        while j not in unclosed:
+            seen.append(j)
+            m = attr_re.match(rawdata, j)
+            if not m:
+                if rawdata.startswith('>', j):
+                    return j + 1
+                break
+            j = m.end()
+        unclosed.update(seen)
+        self._unclosed_tag = (rawdata, i + 1, name.end(1), unclosed)
+        return -1
+
     # The rest has been copied from base class in standard lib to address #1036.
     # As `__startag_text` is private, all references to it must be in this subclass.
     # The last few lines of `parse_starttag` are reversed so that `handle_starttag`
diff --git a/tests/test_syntax/blocks/test_html_blocks.py b/tests/test_syntax/blocks/test_html_blocks.py
index ced51e018..6293a3377 100644
--- a/tests/test_syntax/blocks/test_html_blocks.py
+++ b/tests/test_syntax/blocks/test_html_blocks.py
@@ -1867,6 +1867,17 @@ def test_many_unclosed_comments(self):
             '<p>' + '&lt;!--' * 50000 + '</p>'
         )
 
+    def test_many_unclosed_start_tags(self):
+        """Test that each unclosed start tag does not rescan the rest of the document."""
+        self.assertMarkdownRenders(
+            'a<b ' * 25000,
+            '<p>' + 'a&lt;b ' * 25000 + '</p>'
+        )
+        self.assertMarkdownRenders(
+            '<a@a' * 25000,
+            '<p>' + '&lt;a@a' * 25000 + '</p>'
+        )
+
     def test_no_hang_issue_1586(self):
         """Test no hang condition for issue #1586."""