diff --git a/src/csharp/Grpc.Microbenchmarks/Grpc.Microbenchmarks.csproj b/src/csharp/Grpc.Microbenchmarks/Grpc.Microbenchmarks.csproj
index 899e41ce532..f775e4c85fb 100644
--- a/src/csharp/Grpc.Microbenchmarks/Grpc.Microbenchmarks.csproj
+++ b/src/csharp/Grpc.Microbenchmarks/Grpc.Microbenchmarks.csproj
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
     <TargetFrameworks>net461;netcoreapp2.1</TargetFrameworks>
     <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
     <TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
+    <AllowUnsafeBlocks>true</AllowUnsafeBlocks>
   </PropertyGroup>
 
   <ItemGroup>
diff --git a/src/csharp/Grpc.Microbenchmarks/Utf8Decode.cs b/src/csharp/Grpc.Microbenchmarks/Utf8Decode.cs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1c3f4d261ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/csharp/Grpc.Microbenchmarks/Utf8Decode.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+using System;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Text;
+using BenchmarkDotNet.Attributes;
+using Grpc.Core.Internal;
+
+namespace Grpc.Microbenchmarks
+{
+    [ClrJob, CoreJob] // test .NET Core and .NET Framework
+    [MemoryDiagnoser] // allocations
+    public class Utf8Decode
+    {
+        [Params(0, 1, 4, 128, 1024)]
+        public int PayloadSize { get; set; }
+
+        static readonly Dictionary<int, byte[]> Payloads = new Dictionary<int, byte[]> {
+            { 0, Invent(0) },
+            { 1, Invent(1) },
+            { 4, Invent(4) },
+            { 128, Invent(128) },
+            { 1024, Invent(1024) },
+        };
+
+        static byte[] Invent(int length)
+        {
+            var rand = new Random(Seed: length);
+            var chars = new char[length];
+            for(int i = 0; i < chars.Length; i++)
+            {
+                chars[i] = (char)rand.Next(32, 300);
+            }
+            return Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(chars);
+        }
+
+        const int Iterations = 1000;
+        [Benchmark(OperationsPerInvoke = Iterations)]
+        public unsafe void Run()
+        {
+            byte[] payload = Payloads[PayloadSize];
+            fixed (byte* ptr = payload)
+            {
+                var iPtr = new IntPtr(ptr);
+                for (int i = 0; i < Iterations; i++)
+                {
+                    MarshalUtils.PtrToStringUTF8(iPtr, payload.Length);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}