diff --git a/src/terminal/Screen.zig b/src/terminal/Screen.zig
index c9cabfd27..003ae6bb9 100644
--- a/src/terminal/Screen.zig
+++ b/src/terminal/Screen.zig
@@ -1432,9 +1432,21 @@ pub fn clearCells(
     }
 
     if (row.styled) {
-        for (cells) |*cell| {
-            if (cell.hasStyling())
-                page.styles.release(page.memory, cell.style_id);
+        // Styled cells overwhelmingly come in runs sharing the same
+        // style (e.g. a colored status bar or a highlighted region),
+        // so group them and release each run with a single ref-count
+        // update rather than per cell.
+        var i: usize = 0;
+        while (i < cells.len) {
+            const id = cells[i].style_id;
+            if (id == style.default_id) {
+                i += 1;
+                continue;
+            }
+            var j = i + 1;
+            while (j < cells.len and cells[j].style_id == id) j += 1;
+            page.styles.releaseMultiple(page.memory, id, @intCast(j - i));
+            i = j;
         }
 
         // If we have no left/right scroll region we can be sure