diff --git a/esphome/components/wifi/wifi_component_esp_idf.cpp b/esphome/components/wifi/wifi_component_esp_idf.cpp
index b1569442229..a32232a7584 100644
--- a/esphome/components/wifi/wifi_component_esp_idf.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/wifi/wifi_component_esp_idf.cpp
@@ -840,7 +840,9 @@ void WiFiComponent::wifi_process_event_(IDFWiFiEvent *data) {
 #ifdef USE_ESP32_HOSTED
     // getting records one at a time fails on P4 with hosted esp32 WiFi coprocessor
     // Presumably an upstream bug, work-around by getting all records at once
-    auto records = std::make_unique<wifi_ap_record_t[]>(number);
+    // Use stack buffer (3904 bytes / ~80 bytes per record = ~48 records) with heap fallback
+    static constexpr size_t SCAN_RECORD_STACK_COUNT = 3904 / sizeof(wifi_ap_record_t);
+    SmallBufferWithHeapFallback<SCAN_RECORD_STACK_COUNT, wifi_ap_record_t> records(number);
     err = esp_wifi_scan_get_ap_records(&number, records.get());
     if (err != ESP_OK) {
       esp_wifi_clear_ap_list();
@@ -848,7 +850,7 @@ void WiFiComponent::wifi_process_event_(IDFWiFiEvent *data) {
       return;
     }
     for (uint16_t i = 0; i < number; i++) {
-      wifi_ap_record_t &record = records[i];
+      wifi_ap_record_t &record = records.get()[i];
 #else
     // Process one record at a time to avoid large buffer allocation
     for (uint16_t i = 0; i < number; i++) {