diff --git a/lib/perf_hooks.js b/lib/perf_hooks.js
index 5862e35d738058..041bbf68f2f6c4 100644
--- a/lib/perf_hooks.js
+++ b/lib/perf_hooks.js
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@ const {
   timeOrigin,
   timeOriginTimestamp,
   timerify,
-  constants
+  constants,
+  setupGarbageCollectionTracking
 } = internalBinding('performance');
 
 const {
@@ -275,6 +276,8 @@ class PerformanceObserverEntryList {
   }
 }
 
+let gcTrackingIsEnabled = false;
+
 class PerformanceObserver extends AsyncResource {
   constructor(callback) {
     if (typeof callback !== 'function') {
@@ -336,6 +339,11 @@ class PerformanceObserver extends AsyncResource {
     if (entryTypes.length === 0) {
       throw new errors.ERR_VALID_PERFORMANCE_ENTRY_TYPE();
     }
+    if (entryTypes.includes(NODE_PERFORMANCE_ENTRY_TYPE_GC) &&
+      !gcTrackingIsEnabled) {
+      setupGarbageCollectionTracking();
+      gcTrackingIsEnabled = true;
+    }
     this.disconnect();
     this[kBuffer][kEntries] = [];
     L.init(this[kBuffer][kEntries]);
diff --git a/src/node_perf.cc b/src/node_perf.cc
index cefd0ff26dbf95..33dd1d2051872c 100644
--- a/src/node_perf.cc
+++ b/src/node_perf.cc
@@ -296,8 +296,10 @@ void MarkGarbageCollectionEnd(Isolate* isolate,
                          entry);
 }
 
+static void SetupGarbageCollectionTracking(
+    const FunctionCallbackInfo<Value>& args) {
+  Environment* env = Environment::GetCurrent(args);
 
-inline void SetupGarbageCollectionTracking(Environment* env) {
   env->isolate()->AddGCPrologueCallback(MarkGarbageCollectionStart,
                                         static_cast<void*>(env));
   env->isolate()->AddGCEpilogueCallback(MarkGarbageCollectionEnd,
@@ -416,6 +418,8 @@ void Initialize(Local<Object> target,
   env->SetMethod(target, "markMilestone", MarkMilestone);
   env->SetMethod(target, "setupObservers", SetupPerformanceObservers);
   env->SetMethod(target, "timerify", Timerify);
+  env->SetMethod(
+      target, "setupGarbageCollectionTracking", SetupGarbageCollectionTracking);
 
   Local<Object> constants = Object::New(isolate);
 
@@ -452,8 +456,6 @@ void Initialize(Local<Object> target,
                             env->constants_string(),
                             constants,
                             attr).ToChecked();
-
-  SetupGarbageCollectionTracking(env);
 }
 
 }  // namespace performance