diff --git a/news/7294.feature.rst b/news/7294.feature.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ee459870210
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/7294.feature.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Build environment dependencies are no longer compiled to bytecode during
+installation for a minor performance improvement.
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/build_env.py b/src/pip/_internal/build_env.py
index e820dc3d5fb..746cd0950a8 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/build_env.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/build_env.py
@@ -242,6 +242,10 @@ def _install_requirements(
             prefix.path,
             "--no-warn-script-location",
             "--disable-pip-version-check",
+            # As the build environment is ephemeral, it's wasteful to
+            # pre-compile everything, especially as not every Python
+            # module will be used/compiled in most cases.
+            "--no-compile",
             # The prefix specified two lines above, thus
             # target from config file or env var should be ignored
             "--target",