diff --git a/esphome/core/helpers.h b/esphome/core/helpers.h
index 51feaa57c5..6922cd9cc0 100644
--- a/esphome/core/helpers.h
+++ b/esphome/core/helpers.h
@@ -501,7 +501,9 @@ template<typename T, size_t MAX_CAPACITY = std::numeric_limits<uint16_t>::max()>
 /// falls back to element-wise copy for non-trivially copyable types (e.g. TemplatableValue).
 /// N is set by code generation; ESPHOME_DEBUG_ASSERT catches mismatches in debug/integration tests.
 template<typename T, size_t N> inline void init_array_from(std::array<T, N> &dest, std::initializer_list<T> src) {
-  ESPHOME_DEBUG_ASSERT(src.size() == N);
+#ifdef ESPHOME_DEBUG
+  assert(src.size() == N);
+#endif
   if constexpr (std::is_trivially_copyable_v<T>) {
     __builtin_memcpy(dest.data(), src.begin(), N * sizeof(T));
   } else {