diff --git a/packages/docusaurus-theme-mermaid/src/client/index.ts b/packages/docusaurus-theme-mermaid/src/client/index.ts
index 8e86fc6c45..51a143387e 100644
--- a/packages/docusaurus-theme-mermaid/src/client/index.ts
+++ b/packages/docusaurus-theme-mermaid/src/client/index.ts
@@ -7,8 +7,7 @@
 
 import {useState, useEffect, useMemo} from 'react';
 import {useColorMode, useThemeConfig} from '@docusaurus/theme-common';
-import mermaid from 'mermaid';
-import {ensureLayoutsRegistered} from './layouts';
+import {loadMermaid} from './loadMermaid';
 
 import type {RenderResult, MermaidConfig} from 'mermaid';
 import type {ThemeConfig} from '@docusaurus/theme-mermaid';
@@ -55,7 +54,7 @@ async function renderMermaid({
   text: string;
   config: MermaidConfig;
 }): Promise<RenderResult> {
-  await ensureLayoutsRegistered();
+  const mermaid = await loadMermaid();
 
   /*
   Mermaid API is really weird :s
diff --git a/packages/docusaurus-theme-mermaid/src/client/layouts.ts b/packages/docusaurus-theme-mermaid/src/client/loadMermaid.ts
similarity index 59%
rename from packages/docusaurus-theme-mermaid/src/client/layouts.ts
rename to packages/docusaurus-theme-mermaid/src/client/loadMermaid.ts
index 25a26d1501..47a6c7b3e8 100644
--- a/packages/docusaurus-theme-mermaid/src/client/layouts.ts
+++ b/packages/docusaurus-theme-mermaid/src/client/loadMermaid.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
  */
 
-import mermaid from 'mermaid';
+import type {Mermaid} from 'mermaid';
 
 declare global {
   // Global variable provided by bundler DefinePlugin
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@ declare global {
   const __DOCUSAURUS_MERMAID_LAYOUT_ELK_ENABLED__: boolean;
 }
 
-async function registerOptionalElkLayout() {
+async function loadMermaidAndRegisterLayouts(): Promise<Mermaid> {
+  const mermaid = (await import('mermaid')).default;
+
   // Mermaid does not support ELK layouts by default
   // See https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/tree/develop/packages/mermaid-layout-elk
   // ELK layouts are heavy, so we made it an optional peer dependency
@@ -22,13 +24,19 @@ async function registerOptionalElkLayout() {
     const elkLayout = (await import('@mermaid-js/layout-elk')).default;
     mermaid.registerLayoutLoaders(elkLayout);
   }
+
+  return mermaid;
 }
 
 // Ensure we only try to register layouts once
-let layoutsRegistered = false;
-export async function ensureLayoutsRegistered(): Promise<void> {
-  if (!layoutsRegistered) {
-    await registerOptionalElkLayout();
-    layoutsRegistered = true;
+let MermaidPromise: Promise<Mermaid> | null = null;
+
+// We load Mermaid with a dynamic import to code split / lazy load the library
+// It is only called inside a useEffect, so loading can be deferred
+// We memoize so that we don't load and register layouts multiple times
+export async function loadMermaid(): Promise<Mermaid> {
+  if (!MermaidPromise) {
+    MermaidPromise = loadMermaidAndRegisterLayouts();
   }
+  return MermaidPromise;
 }