diff --git a/esphome/components/api/proto.h b/esphome/components/api/proto.h
index 0088e5c451..536a3536db 100644
--- a/esphome/components/api/proto.h
+++ b/esphome/components/api/proto.h
@@ -105,7 +105,9 @@ class ProtoVarInt {
 
   /// Parse a varint from buffer. consumed must be a valid pointer (not null).
   static optional<ProtoVarInt> parse(const uint8_t *buffer, uint32_t len, uint32_t *consumed) {
+#ifdef ESPHOME_DEBUG_API
     assert(consumed != nullptr);
+#endif
     if (len == 0)
       return {};
 
@@ -920,8 +922,10 @@ inline void ProtoWriteBuffer::encode_message(uint32_t field_id, const ProtoMessa
   // Now encode the message content - it will append to the buffer
   value.encode(*this);
 
+#ifdef ESPHOME_DEBUG_API
   // Verify that the encoded size matches what we calculated
   assert(this->buffer_->size() == begin + varint_length_bytes + msg_length_bytes);
+#endif
 }
 
 // Implementation of decode_to_message - must be after ProtoDecodableMessage is defined