diff --git a/akka-bench-jmh/src/main/scala/akka/stream/MapAsyncBenchmark.scala b/akka-bench-jmh/src/main/scala/akka/stream/MapAsyncBenchmark.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e592731461
--- /dev/null
+++ b/akka-bench-jmh/src/main/scala/akka/stream/MapAsyncBenchmark.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (C) 2014-2018 Lightbend Inc. <https://www.lightbend.com>
+ */
+
+package akka.stream
+
+import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit
+
+import scala.concurrent.Await
+import scala.concurrent.Future
+import scala.concurrent.duration._
+
+import akka.NotUsed
+import akka.actor.ActorSystem
+import akka.remote.artery.BenchTestSource
+import akka.remote.artery.LatchSink
+import akka.stream.impl.PhasedFusingActorMaterializer
+import akka.stream.impl.StreamSupervisor
+import akka.stream.scaladsl._
+import akka.testkit.TestProbe
+import com.typesafe.config.ConfigFactory
+import org.openjdk.jmh.annotations._
+
+object MapAsyncBenchmark {
+  final val OperationsPerInvocation = 100000
+}
+
+@State(Scope.Benchmark)
+@OutputTimeUnit(TimeUnit.SECONDS)
+@BenchmarkMode(Array(Mode.Throughput))
+class MapAsyncBenchmark {
+  import MapAsyncBenchmark._
+
+  val config = ConfigFactory.parseString(
+    """
+    akka.actor.default-dispatcher {
+      executor = "fork-join-executor"
+      fork-join-executor {
+        parallelism-factor = 1
+      }
+    }
+    """
+  )
+
+  implicit val system = ActorSystem("MapAsyncBenchmark", config)
+  import system.dispatcher
+
+  var materializer: ActorMaterializer = _
+
+  var testSource: Source[java.lang.Integer, NotUsed] = _
+
+  @Param(Array("1", "4"))
+  var parallelism = 0
+
+  @Param(Array("false", "true"))
+  var spawn = false
+
+  @Setup
+  def setup(): Unit = {
+    val settings = ActorMaterializerSettings(system)
+    materializer = ActorMaterializer(settings)
+
+    testSource = Source.fromGraph(new BenchTestSource(OperationsPerInvocation))
+  }
+
+  @TearDown
+  def shutdown(): Unit = {
+    Await.result(system.terminate(), 5.seconds)
+  }
+
+  @Benchmark
+  @OperationsPerInvocation(OperationsPerInvocation)
+  def mapAsync(): Unit = {
+    val latch = new CountDownLatch(1)
+
+    testSource
+      .mapAsync(parallelism)(elem ⇒ if (spawn) Future(elem) else Future.successful(elem))
+      .runWith(new LatchSink(OperationsPerInvocation, latch))(materializer)
+
+    awaitLatch(latch)
+  }
+
+  @Benchmark
+  @OperationsPerInvocation(OperationsPerInvocation)
+  def mapAsyncUnordered(): Unit = {
+    val latch = new CountDownLatch(1)
+
+    testSource
+      .mapAsyncUnordered(parallelism)(elem ⇒ if (spawn) Future(elem) else Future.successful(elem))
+      .runWith(new LatchSink(OperationsPerInvocation, latch))(materializer)
+
+    awaitLatch(latch)
+  }
+
+  private def awaitLatch(latch: CountDownLatch): Unit = {
+    if (!latch.await(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS)) {
+      dumpMaterializer()
+      throw new RuntimeException("Latch didn't complete in time")
+    }
+  }
+
+  private def dumpMaterializer(): Unit = {
+    materializer match {
+      case impl: PhasedFusingActorMaterializer ⇒
+        val probe = TestProbe()(system)
+        impl.supervisor.tell(StreamSupervisor.GetChildren, probe.ref)
+        val children = probe.expectMsgType[StreamSupervisor.Children].children
+        children.foreach(_ ! StreamSupervisor.PrintDebugDump)
+    }
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/scaladsl/Flow.scala b/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/scaladsl/Flow.scala
index 3e8c129bff..a9f98f6659 100755
--- a/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/scaladsl/Flow.scala
+++ b/akka-stream/src/main/scala/akka/stream/scaladsl/Flow.scala
@@ -869,7 +869,9 @@ trait FlowOps[+Out, +Mat] {
    *
    * @see [[#mapAsyncUnordered]]
    */
-  def mapAsync[T](parallelism: Int)(f: Out ⇒ Future[T]): Repr[T] = via(MapAsync(parallelism, f))
+  def mapAsync[T](parallelism: Int)(f: Out ⇒ Future[T]): Repr[T] =
+    if (parallelism == 1) mapAsyncUnordered[T](parallelism = 1)(f) // optimization for parallelism 1
+    else via(MapAsync(parallelism, f))
 
   /**
    * Transform this stream by applying the given function to each of the elements