diff --git a/plugins/mise/mise.plugin.zsh b/plugins/mise/mise.plugin.zsh
index 1fcf24919..2330a302a 100644
--- a/plugins/mise/mise.plugin.zsh
+++ b/plugins/mise/mise.plugin.zsh
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 if (( $+commands[mise] )); then
-  _mise_bin=mise
+  _mise_bin=$commands[mise]
 elif [[ -x ~/.local/bin/mise ]]; then
   _mise_bin=~/.local/bin/mise
 else
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ fi
 
 # Load mise hooks
 eval "$($_mise_bin activate zsh)"
-unset _mise_bin
 
 # If the completion file doesn't exist yet, we need to autoload it and
 # bind it to `mise`. Otherwise, compinit will have already done that.
@@ -18,9 +17,13 @@ if [[ ! -f "$ZSH_CACHE_DIR/completions/_mise" ]]; then
   _comps[mise]=_mise
 fi
 
-# Generate and load mise completion
-zmodload -F zsh/files b:zf_mv
-() {
-  local TMPPREFIX="$ZSH_CACHE_DIR/completions/._mise"
-  zf_mv -f -- =( mise completion zsh ) "$ZSH_CACHE_DIR/completions/_mise"
-} &|
+# Generate completion only when missing/empty or stale relative to the mise binary.
+if [[ ! -s "$ZSH_CACHE_DIR/completions/_mise" || "$_mise_bin" -nt "$ZSH_CACHE_DIR/completions/_mise" ]]; then
+  zmodload -F zsh/files b:zf_mv
+  () {
+    local TMPPREFIX="$ZSH_CACHE_DIR/completions/._mise"
+    zf_mv -f -- =( "$_mise_bin" completion zsh ) "$ZSH_CACHE_DIR/completions/_mise"
+  } &|
+fi
+
+unset _mise_bin