diff --git a/packages/react/__tests__/components.test.tsx b/packages/react/__tests__/components.test.tsx
index 6203e622..85cdd8ae 100644
--- a/packages/react/__tests__/components.test.tsx
+++ b/packages/react/__tests__/components.test.tsx
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import LaTeX2HTML5 from 'latex2js';
 import nicebox from '../src/components/nicebox';
 import enumerate from '../src/components/enumerate';
 import math from '../src/components/math';
+import { LaTeX } from '../src';
 
 describe('nicebox', () => {
   it('renders the parser-provided lines, not children', () => {
@@ -82,3 +83,29 @@ In DFS, $\omega_0 = 2\pi/p$.
     expect(html).toContain('In DFS');
   });
 });
+
+describe('LaTeX', () => {
+  it('reuses the parsed document when content is unchanged', () => {
+    const source = String.raw`\begin{nicebox}content\end{nicebox}`;
+    const instance = new LaTeX({ content: source });
+    (instance as any).state = { mathJaxLoaded: true };
+    const parse = jest.spyOn(LaTeX2HTML5.prototype, 'parse');
+
+    instance.render();
+    instance.render();
+
+    expect(parse).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    parse.mockRestore();
+  });
+
+  it('typesets after an update when MathJax is loaded', () => {
+    const instance = new LaTeX({ content: 'content' });
+    (instance as any).state = { mathJaxLoaded: true };
+    const typesetMath = jest.spyOn(instance, 'typesetMath').mockImplementation(() => {});
+
+    instance.componentDidUpdate();
+
+    expect(typesetMath).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    typesetMath.mockRestore();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/react/src/index.tsx b/packages/react/src/index.tsx
index c6dcf46f..2ef1ced5 100644
--- a/packages/react/src/index.tsx
+++ b/packages/react/src/index.tsx
@@ -28,6 +28,9 @@ interface LaTeXState {
 
 export class LaTeX extends Component<LaTeXProps, LaTeXState> {
   private containerRef = React.createRef<HTMLDivElement>();
+  private parsedContent: string | null = null;
+  private parsed: any = null;
+  private children: React.ReactElement[] = [];
 
   constructor(props: LaTeXProps) {
     super(props);
@@ -38,14 +41,12 @@ export class LaTeX extends Component<LaTeXProps, LaTeXState> {
 
   componentDidMount() {
     loadMathJax(() => {
-      this.setState({ mathJaxLoaded: true }, () => {
-        this.typesetMath();
-      });
+      this.setState({ mathJaxLoaded: true });
     });
   }
 
-  componentDidUpdate(prevProps: LaTeXProps) {
-    if (prevProps.content !== this.props.content && this.state.mathJaxLoaded) {
+  componentDidUpdate() {
+    if (this.state.mathJaxLoaded) {
       this.typesetMath();
     }
   }
@@ -64,20 +65,22 @@ export class LaTeX extends Component<LaTeXProps, LaTeXState> {
       return <div className="latex-container">Loading...</div>;
     }
 
-    const latex = new LaTeX2HTML5();
-    const parsed = latex.parse(this.props.content);
-
-    const children: React.ReactElement[] = [];
-
-    parsed &&
-      parsed.forEach &&
-      parsed.forEach((el: any) => {
-        if (ELEMENTS.hasOwnProperty(el.type)) {
-          const elementType = el.type as keyof typeof ELEMENTS;
-          const Component = ELEMENTS[elementType];
-          children.push(createElement(Component as any, { ...el, key: children.length }));
-        }
-      });
+    if (this.parsedContent !== this.props.content) {
+      const latex = new LaTeX2HTML5();
+      this.parsed = latex.parse(this.props.content);
+      this.parsedContent = this.props.content;
+
+      this.children = [];
+      this.parsed &&
+        this.parsed.forEach &&
+        this.parsed.forEach((el: any) => {
+          if (ELEMENTS.hasOwnProperty(el.type)) {
+            const elementType = el.type as keyof typeof ELEMENTS;
+            const Component = ELEMENTS[elementType];
+            this.children.push(createElement(Component as any, { ...el, key: this.children.length }));
+          }
+        });
+    }
 
     return (
       <div className="latex-container" ref={this.containerRef}>
@@ -86,7 +89,7 @@ export class LaTeX extends Component<LaTeXProps, LaTeXState> {
             package defines them before any math that uses them — the same
             hidden-div approach the html5 and vue renderers use. */}
         <div className="latex-macros" style={{ display: 'none' }}>{macroStr}</div>
-        {children}
+        {this.children}
       </div>
     );
   }