diff --git a/wp-includes/formatting.php b/wp-includes/formatting.php
index 38b6bbf72b..d71ab2d6c1 100644
--- a/wp-includes/formatting.php
+++ b/wp-includes/formatting.php
@@ -3937,10 +3937,26 @@ function wp_trim_excerpt( $text = '', $post = null ) {
 		$text = strip_shortcodes( $text );
 		$text = excerpt_remove_blocks( $text );
 
+		/*
+		 * Temporarily unhook wp_filter_content_tags() since any tags
+		 * within the excerpt are stripped out. Modifying the tags here
+		 * is wasteful and can lead to bugs in the image counting logic.
+		 */
+		$filter_removed = remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wp_filter_content_tags' );
+
 		/** This filter is documented in wp-includes/post-template.php */
 		$text = apply_filters( 'the_content', $text );
 		$text = str_replace( ']]>', ']]>', $text );
 
+		/**
+		 * Only restore the filter callback if it was removed above. The logic
+		 * to unhook and restore only applies on the default priority of 10,
+		 * which is generally used for the filter callback in WordPress core.
+		 */
+		if ( $filter_removed ) {
+			add_filter( 'the_content', 'wp_filter_content_tags' );
+		}
+
 		/* translators: Maximum number of words used in a post excerpt. */
 		$excerpt_length = (int) _x( '55', 'excerpt_length' );
 
diff --git a/wp-includes/version.php b/wp-includes/version.php
index 5c7e5d56d8..485ddcbdba 100644
--- a/wp-includes/version.php
+++ b/wp-includes/version.php
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
  *
  * @global string $wp_version
  */
-$wp_version = '6.3-alpha-55849';
+$wp_version = '6.3-alpha-55850';
 
 /**
  * Holds the WordPress DB revision, increments when changes are made to the WordPress DB schema.