diff --git a/baker/updateAvailableEntities.ts b/baker/updateAvailableEntities.ts
index f38efcbe251..f59ec8a0f0e 100644
--- a/baker/updateAvailableEntities.ts
+++ b/baker/updateAvailableEntities.ts
@@ -1,13 +1,91 @@
+/**
+ * Updates the charts_x_entities table with the available entities for all published charts.
+ * This is useful in search, where we want to be able to filter charts by entities that can be selected.
+ * To do this, we need to instantiate a grapher, download its data, and then look at the available entities.
+ */
+
 import { Grapher } from "@ourworldindata/grapher"
-import { GrapherInterface, GrapherTabOption } from "@ourworldindata/types"
+import {
+    GrapherInterface,
+    GrapherTabOption,
+    MultipleOwidVariableDataDimensionsMap,
+    OwidVariableDataMetadataDimensions,
+} from "@ourworldindata/types"
 import * as db from "../db/db.js"
 import pMap from "p-map"
+import { getVariableData } from "../db/model/Variable.js"
+import { uniq } from "@ourworldindata/utils"
+
+const FETCH_CONCURRENCY = 10
+const VARIABLES_TO_PREFETCH = 300
+
+let _commonVariablesMap:
+    | Map<number, OwidVariableDataMetadataDimensions>
+    | undefined = undefined
+
+const _fetchVariablesCounters = { cached: 0, fetched: 0 }
+
+// This is a poor-man's cache for variable data.
+// It is unrealistic to cache all variables in memory - at the time of writing, there are about 8000 distinct variables.
+// Instead, we pre-fetch the most common variables and cache them in memory.
+// These include very common variables: Continents, Population, GDP per capita, etc.
+const preFetchCommonVariables = async (
+    trx: db.KnexReadonlyTransaction
+): Promise<void> => {
+    const commonVariables = (await db.knexRaw(
+        trx,
+        `-- sql
+        SELECT variableId, COUNT(variableId) AS useCount
+        FROM chart_dimensions cd
+        JOIN charts c ON cd.chartId = c.id
+        WHERE config ->> "$.isPublished" = "true"
+        GROUP BY variableId
+        ORDER BY COUNT(variableId) DESC
+        LIMIT ??`,
+        [VARIABLES_TO_PREFETCH]
+    )) as { variableId: number; useCount: number }[]
+
+    _commonVariablesMap = new Map(
+        await pMap(
+            commonVariables,
+            async ({ variableId, useCount }) => {
+                const variableData = await getVariableData(variableId)
+                console.log(
+                    `Pre-fetched variable ${variableId}: ${variableData.metadata.name} (${useCount} uses)`
+                )
+                return [variableId, variableData]
+            },
+            { concurrency: FETCH_CONCURRENCY }
+        )
+    )
+}
+
+const getVariableDataUsingCache = async (
+    variableId: number
+): Promise<OwidVariableDataMetadataDimensions> => {
+    if (_commonVariablesMap?.has(variableId)) {
+        _fetchVariablesCounters.cached++
+        return _commonVariablesMap.get(variableId)!
+    }
+
+    _fetchVariablesCounters.fetched++
+    return getVariableData(variableId)
+}
 
 const obtainAvailableEntitiesForGrapherConfig = async (
     grapherConfig: GrapherInterface
 ) => {
-    const grapher = new Grapher({ ...grapherConfig })
-    await grapher.downloadLegacyDataFromOwidVariableIds()
+    const grapher = new Grapher({ ...grapherConfig, manuallyProvideData: true })
+
+    // Manually fetch data for grapher, so we can employ caching
+    const variableIds = uniq(grapher.dimensions.map((d) => d.variableId))
+    const variableData: MultipleOwidVariableDataDimensionsMap = new Map(
+        await pMap(variableIds, async (variableId) => [
+            variableId,
+            await getVariableDataUsingCache(variableId),
+        ])
+    )
+    grapher.receiveOwidData(variableData)
 
     // If the grapher has a chart tab, then the available entities there are the "most interesting" ones to us
     if (grapher.hasChartTab) {
@@ -30,6 +108,8 @@ const obtainAvailableEntitiesForGrapherConfig = async (
     } else return []
 }
 
+// The `entities` table has a 1-to-1 mapping between entity names and entity ids.
+// This function returns a map from entity names to entity ids, so we can easily convert name to ID.
 const obtainEntityNameToIdMap = async (trx: db.KnexReadonlyTransaction) => {
     const entityNameToIdMap = new Map<string, number>()
     const entities = await trx("entities").select("id", "name").stream()
@@ -70,23 +150,39 @@ const obtainAvailableEntitiesForAllGraphers = async (
             )
             availableEntitiesByChartId.set(grapher.id, availableEntityIds)
 
-            console.log(grapher.id, config.slug)
+            console.log(
+                grapher.id,
+                config.slug,
+                `[${availableEntities.length} entities]`
+            )
         },
-        { concurrency: 10 }
+        { concurrency: FETCH_CONCURRENCY }
     )
 
     return availableEntitiesByChartId
 }
 
+// Obtains available entities for ALL published graphers and updates the charts_x_entities table
+// (by clearing it out and re-inserting all entries).
 const updateAvailableEntitiesForAllGraphers = async (
     trx: db.KnexReadWriteTransaction
 ) => {
+    console.log(
+        `--- Pre-fetching ${VARIABLES_TO_PREFETCH} most common variables ---`
+    )
+    await preFetchCommonVariables(trx)
+
     console.log(
         "--- Obtaining available entity ids for all published graphers ---"
     )
     const availableEntitiesByChartId =
         await obtainAvailableEntitiesForAllGraphers(trx)
 
+    console.log("--- Fetch stats ---")
+    console.log(
+        `Fetched ${_fetchVariablesCounters.fetched} variables; cached ${_fetchVariablesCounters.cached} variable loads using ${VARIABLES_TO_PREFETCH} pre-fetched variables`
+    )
+
     console.log("--- Updating charts_x_entities ---")
 
     await trx.delete().from("charts_x_entities") // clears out the WHOLE table
@@ -97,6 +193,8 @@ const updateAvailableEntitiesForAllGraphers = async (
         }))
         if (rows.length) await trx("charts_x_entities").insert(rows)
     }
+
+    console.log("--- ✅ Done ---")
 }
 
 const main = async () => {