diff --git a/src/app/features/room/message/EditHistoryModal.tsx b/src/app/features/room/message/EditHistoryModal.tsx
index f1461c7c6..425799dda 100644
--- a/src/app/features/room/message/EditHistoryModal.tsx
+++ b/src/app/features/room/message/EditHistoryModal.tsx
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import React, { ReactNode, useCallback, useEffect, useState } from 'react';
+import React, { ReactNode, useCallback, useEffect, useMemo, useState } from 'react';
 import parse from 'html-react-parser';
 import Linkify from 'linkify-react';
 import FocusTrap from 'focus-trap-react';
@@ -113,10 +113,11 @@ function getVersionText(evt: MatrixEvent): string {
 }
 
 // Renders a word-level diff of prev -> next: added words highlighted, removed
-// words struck-through. Uses semantic <ins>/<del> so screen readers announce
-// the change. Plain-text only (formatting isn't diffed — see the toggle).
+// words struck-through, using semantic <ins>/<del> elements. Plain-text only
+// (formatting isn't diffed — see the "Highlight changes" toggle).
 function DiffText({ prev, next }: { prev: string; next: string }) {
-  const segments = diffWords(prev, next);
+  const segments = useMemo(() => diffWords(prev, next), [prev, next]);
+  if (segments.length === 0) return <>(no text)</>;
   return (
     <>
       {segments.map((seg, i) => {
@@ -128,8 +129,12 @@ function DiffText({ prev, next }: { prev: string; next: string }) {
               style={{
                 background: color.Success.Container,
                 color: color.Success.OnContainer,
+                border: `${config.borderWidth.B300} solid ${color.Success.ContainerLine}`,
                 borderRadius: config.radii.R300,
+                padding: `0 ${config.space.S100}`,
                 textDecoration: 'none',
+                boxDecorationBreak: 'clone',
+                WebkitBoxDecorationBreak: 'clone',
               }}
             >
               {seg.text}
diff --git a/src/app/utils/textDiff.test.ts b/src/app/utils/textDiff.test.ts
index 91df2fd20..ee059b311 100644
--- a/src/app/utils/textDiff.test.ts
+++ b/src/app/utils/textDiff.test.ts
@@ -78,6 +78,18 @@ test('diffWords does not mutate its inputs', () => {
   assert.equal(b, 'alpha gamma');
 });
 
+test('very large inputs fall back to a coarse whole-block diff', () => {
+  const big = Array.from({ length: 5000 }, (_, i) => `w${i}`).join(' ');
+  const out = diffWords(big, `${big} extra`);
+  // Coarse fallback: one removed block + one added block (no per-word LCS).
+  assert.deepEqual(
+    out.map((s) => s.type),
+    ['removed', 'added'],
+  );
+  assert.equal(oldText(out), big);
+  assert.equal(newText(out), `${big} extra`);
+});
+
 test('word-level granularity (not character-level)', () => {
   const out = diffWords('cat', 'cats');
   // "cat" and "cats" are different tokens → full removed + added, no partial.
diff --git a/src/app/utils/textDiff.ts b/src/app/utils/textDiff.ts
index 4479c9c3a..3eb403b42 100644
--- a/src/app/utils/textDiff.ts
+++ b/src/app/utils/textDiff.ts
@@ -10,6 +10,18 @@ export type DiffSegment = {
 // spacing/newlines are both preserved when segments are re-joined.
 const tokenize = (text: string): string[] => text.match(/\s+|\S+/g) ?? [];
 
+// Above this many tokens per side the O(n*m) LCS table gets expensive/large, so
+// we fall back to a coarse whole-block "replaced" diff. Message bodies this long
+// are rare; the exact word diff isn't worth a multi-million-cell allocation.
+const MAX_DIFF_TOKENS = 2000;
+
+const coarseDiff = (oldText: string, newText: string): DiffSegment[] => {
+  const segments: DiffSegment[] = [];
+  if (oldText) segments.push({ type: 'removed', text: oldText });
+  if (newText) segments.push({ type: 'added', text: newText });
+  return segments;
+};
+
 /**
  * Word-level diff of `oldText` → `newText` via a classic LCS. Returns segments
  * in reading order: `equal` runs, `removed` runs (present only in old), and
@@ -19,6 +31,9 @@ const tokenize = (text: string): string[] => text.match(/\s+|\S+/g) ?? [];
 export function diffWords(oldText: string, newText: string): DiffSegment[] {
   const a = tokenize(oldText);
   const b = tokenize(newText);
+  if (a.length > MAX_DIFF_TOKENS || b.length > MAX_DIFF_TOKENS) {
+    return coarseDiff(oldText, newText);
+  }
   const n = a.length;
   const m = b.length;