diff --git a/src/shared/utils/tiktokenCounter.ts b/src/shared/utils/tiktokenCounter.ts
index ec6af38913..5f4354f045 100644
--- a/src/shared/utils/tiktokenCounter.ts
+++ b/src/shared/utils/tiktokenCounter.ts
@@ -21,6 +21,29 @@ export function tokenizerContextFromBody(body: unknown): TokenizerContext {
 
 const encoders = new Map<TokenizerEncoding, Tiktoken>();
 
+/**
+ * Above this many characters the exact tokenizer is skipped in favor of the
+ * char-heuristic (chars/4). js-tiktoken's pure-JS encoder is near-quadratic on
+ * large inputs — a 10 MB base64 image payload can block the event loop for
+ * tens of seconds (OmniRoute worker wedge incident). Token counting is used for
+ * compression stats/estimates only, so a heuristic on oversized inputs is
+ * acceptable and keeps the loop responsive.
+ */
+const MAX_EXACT_TOKEN_COUNT_CHARS = 50_000;
+
+/**
+ * Base64 data URIs (e.g. OpenAI-style `image_url.url`) must not be tokenized:
+ * they are image payloads, not text. Matching a data URI of any `image/*`
+ * media type and stripping it keeps the count accurate (the raw bytes of an
+ * image are not meaningful "text" tokens) while avoiding the quadratic encode
+ * cost on large attachments.
+ */
+const BASE64_DATA_URI_RE = /data:image\/[a-z0-9.+-]+;base64,[A-Za-z0-9+/=]+/gi;
+
+function stripBase64DataUris(text: string): string {
+  return text.replace(BASE64_DATA_URI_RE, "");
+}
+
 function normalize(value: unknown): string {
   return typeof value === "string" ? value.trim().toLowerCase() : "";
 }
@@ -60,12 +83,19 @@ function getEncoder(encoding: TokenizerEncoding): Tiktoken {
  * Existing callers retain cl100k_base; Codex callers may pass provider/model context
  * to use o200k_base.
  * Defensive: never throws in a counting path — falls back to a char heuristic.
+ * Oversized inputs (over 50k chars) and base64 image data URIs are never
+ * tokenized: the encoder is near-quadratic on large strings and would block the
+ * event loop (worker wedge regression).
  */
 export function countTextTokens(text: string, context?: TokenizerContext): number {
   if (!text || typeof text !== "string") return 0;
+  const stripped = stripBase64DataUris(text);
+  if (stripped.length > MAX_EXACT_TOKEN_COUNT_CHARS) {
+    return Math.ceil(stripped.length / 4);
+  }
   try {
-    return getEncoder(resolveTokenizerEncoding(context)).encode(text).length;
+    return getEncoder(resolveTokenizerEncoding(context)).encode(stripped).length;
   } catch {
-    return Math.ceil(text.length / 4);
+    return Math.ceil(stripped.length / 4);
   }
 }
diff --git a/tests/unit/tiktoken-counter.test.ts b/tests/unit/tiktoken-counter.test.ts
index 110618d1b0..d3263dfd31 100644
--- a/tests/unit/tiktoken-counter.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/tiktoken-counter.test.ts
@@ -40,3 +40,34 @@ test("countTextTokens is additive-ish and monotonic for longer text", () => {
   assert.ok(long > short);
   assert.ok(short > 0);
 });
+
+test("countTextTokens fast-paths strings over 50k chars without tokenizing (worker wedge regression)", () => {
+  const big = "user: please review the attached patch\ntext: ".repeat(40_000);
+  const start = performance.now();
+  const tokens = countTextTokens(big);
+  const elapsed = performance.now() - start;
+  assert.equal(tokens, Math.ceil(big.length / 4));
+  assert.ok(elapsed < 1000, `fast path took ${elapsed.toFixed(0)}ms`);
+});
+
+test("countTextTokens strips base64 data URIs before tokenizing (images not counted as text)", () => {
+  const png =
+    "iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAYAAAAfFcSJAAAADUlEQVR42mP8z8BQDwAEhQGAhKmMIQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==";
+  const b64 = png.repeat(60);
+  const withImage = countTextTokens(
+    `{"image_url":{"url":"data:image/png;base64,${b64}"}}`,
+    { provider: "codex" }
+  );
+  const stripped = countTextTokens('{"image_url":{"url":""}}', { provider: "codex" });
+  assert.equal(withImage, stripped);
+});
+
+test("countTextTokens does not tokenize huge base64 image payloads (wedge repro)", () => {
+  const b64 = "iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAYAAAAfFcSJAAAADUlEQVR42mP8z8BQDwAEhQGAhKmMIQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==";
+  const body = `{"image_url":{"url":"data:image/png;base64,${b64.repeat(14_000)}"}}`;
+  const start = performance.now();
+  const tokens = countTextTokens(body);
+  const elapsed = performance.now() - start;
+  assert.ok(tokens < 1000, `base64 payload inflates token count to ${tokens}`);
+  assert.ok(elapsed < 1000, `took ${elapsed.toFixed(0)}ms`);
+});