diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index a6f2fa986ae7937188e8a2d3a7997a4b4026625d..7c63bff6e0b2d3189fbf5f95212e89ff76cdada9 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -813,9 +813,9 @@ endif()
 if("${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}" STREQUAL "Debug")
   set(ZIG_RELEASE_ARG "")
 elseif("${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}" STREQUAL "RelWithDebInfo")
-  set(ZIG_RELEASE_ARG -Drelease)
+  set(ZIG_RELEASE_ARG -Doptimize=ReleaseFast)
 else()
-  set(ZIG_RELEASE_ARG -Drelease -Dstrip)
+  set(ZIG_RELEASE_ARG -Doptimize=ReleaseFast -Dstrip)
 endif()
 if(ZIG_NO_LIB)
   set(ZIG_NO_LIB_ARG "-Dno-lib")
diff --git a/build.zig b/build.zig
index 1385409ec303b0f330251d1e875c84a573725d80..6cb3e35488cb57891cbc00f4312da2adccf057e4 100644
--- a/build.zig
+++ b/build.zig
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ const zig_version = std.builtin.Version{ .major = 0, .minor = 11, .patch = 0 };
 const stack_size = 32 * 1024 * 1024;
 
 pub fn build(b: *std.Build) !void {
-    const release = b.option(bool, "release", "Build in release mode") orelse false;
     const only_c = b.option(bool, "only-c", "Translate the Zig compiler to C code, with only the C backend enabled") orelse false;
     const target = t: {
         var default_target: std.zig.CrossTarget = .{};
@@ -22,10 +21,8 @@ pub fn build(b: *std.Build) !void {
         }
         break :t b.standardTargetOptions(.{ .default_target = default_target });
     };
-    const optimize: std.builtin.OptimizeMode = if (release) switch (target.getCpuArch()) {
-        .wasm32 => .ReleaseSmall,
-        else => .ReleaseFast,
-    } else .Debug;
+
+    const optimize = b.standardOptimizeOption(.{});
 
     const single_threaded = b.option(bool, "single-threaded", "Build artifacts that run in single threaded mode");
     const use_zig_libcxx = b.option(bool, "use-zig-libcxx", "If libc++ is needed, use zig's bundled version, don't try to integrate with the system") orelse false;
diff --git a/ci/aarch64-macos.sh b/ci/aarch64-macos.sh
index a4c2b9a748c2312e5567919f8857e54fc46d204f..c5ce361722aa18b607c44c5689e38e824298b194 100755
--- a/ci/aarch64-macos.sh
+++ b/ci/aarch64-macos.sh
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ stage3-release/bin/zig build \
   --prefix stage4-release \
   -Denable-llvm \
   -Dno-lib \
-  -Drelease \
+  -Doptimize=ReleaseFast \
   -Dstrip \
   -Dtarget=$TARGET \
   -Duse-zig-libcxx \
diff --git a/ci/x86_64-linux-release.sh b/ci/x86_64-linux-release.sh
index 4351707864080ea932605c5c16b2a159d7e0c0ea..e35daa21247c99193af651faecf8b3597ae24857 100755
--- a/ci/x86_64-linux-release.sh
+++ b/ci/x86_64-linux-release.sh
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ stage3-release/bin/zig build \
   --prefix stage4-release \
   -Denable-llvm \
   -Dno-lib \
-  -Drelease \
+  -Doptimize=ReleaseFast \
   -Dstrip \
   -Dtarget=$TARGET \
   -Duse-zig-libcxx \
diff --git a/ci/x86_64-macos-release.sh b/ci/x86_64-macos-release.sh
index 1dd17943c3af0b3799b972efbe1217cdc054e169..a5bf7031f9c236c094b1f2867fa29305d70a722e 100755
--- a/ci/x86_64-macos-release.sh
+++ b/ci/x86_64-macos-release.sh
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ stage3/bin/zig build \
   --prefix stage4 \
   -Denable-llvm \
   -Dno-lib \
-  -Drelease \
+  -Doptimize=ReleaseFast \
   -Dstrip \
   -Dtarget=$TARGET \
   -Duse-zig-libcxx \