AOT (Ahead-of-Time) compilation compiles your .NET code directly to WebAssembly at publish time rather than interpreting IL at runtime. The result is dramatically faster execution for CPU-intensive operations.

When to Use AOT

• Heavy computation: data processing, graphics, simulations
• Where runtime performance matters more than download size
• AOT roughly doubles the app download size

Enabling AOT

<!-- In .csproj -->
<PropertyGroup>
    <RunAOTCompilation>true</RunAOTCompilation>
</PropertyGroup>

// Or at publish time:
dotnet publish -c Release -p:RunAOTCompilation=true

Requirements

• Install wasm tools: dotnet workload install wasm-tools
• Build times are significantly longer with AOT enabled
• Not all .NET code patterns are AOT-compatible — test thoroughly

Options Compared

• Interpreter (default) — smallest download, slowest execution
• Full AOT — largest download, fastest execution
• Hybrid AOT — AOT hot paths, interpret cold paths — best balance

Reference:

Wikipedia: Ahead-of-Time Compilation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahead-of-time_compilation