diff --git a/doc_src/cmds/path.rst b/doc_src/cmds/path.rst
index aea671a7e..d0e3cc6a4 100644
--- a/doc_src/cmds/path.rst
+++ b/doc_src/cmds/path.rst
@@ -27,10 +27,10 @@ Arguments starting with ``-`` are normally interpreted as switches; ``--`` cause
 
 All subcommands accept a ``-q`` or ``--quiet`` switch, which suppresses the usual output but exits with the documented status. In this case these commands will quit early, without reading all of the available input.
 
-All subcommands also accept a ``-z`` or ``--null-in`` switch, which makes them accept arguments from stdin separated with NULL-bytes. Since Unix paths can't contain NULL, that makes it possible to handle all possible paths and read input from e.g. ``find -print0``. If arguments are given on the commandline this has no effect.
-
 All subcommands also accept a ``-Z`` or ``--null-out`` switch, which makes them print output separated with NULL instead of newlines. This is for further processing, e.g. passing to another ``path`` with ``--null-in``, or ``xargs -0``. This is not recommended when the output goes to the terminal or a command substitution.
 
+All subcommands also accept a ``-z`` or ``--null-in`` switch, which makes them accept arguments from stdin separated with NULL-bytes. Since Unix paths can't contain NULL, that makes it possible to handle all possible paths and read input from e.g. ``find -print0``. If arguments are given on the commandline this has no effect. This should mostly be unnecessary since ``path`` automatically starts splitting on NULL if one appears in the first PATH_MAX bytes, PATH_MAX being the operating system's maximum length for a path plus a NULL byte.
+
 Some subcommands operate on the paths as strings and so work on nonexistent paths, while others need to access the paths themselves and so filter out nonexistent paths.
 
 The following subcommands are available.
diff --git a/src/builtin_path.cpp b/src/builtin_path.cpp
index 93f86dd7a..ec2d20985 100644
--- a/src/builtin_path.cpp
+++ b/src/builtin_path.cpp
@@ -19,9 +19,9 @@
 #include "wutil.h"  // IWYU pragma: keep
 
 // How many bytes we read() at once.
-// Bash uses 128 here, so we do too (see READ_CHUNK_SIZE).
-// This should be about the size of a line.
-#define PATH_CHUNK_SIZE 128
+// We use PATH_MAX here so we always get at least one path,
+// and so we can automatically detect NULL-separated input.
+#define PATH_CHUNK_SIZE PATH_MAX
 
 static void path_error(io_streams_t &streams, const wchar_t *fmt, ...) {
     streams.err.append(L"path ");
@@ -55,8 +55,13 @@ class arg_iterator_t {
     int argidx_;
     // If not using argv, a string to store bytes that have been read but not yet returned.
     std::string buffer_;
-    // The char to split on when reading from stdin.
-    const char split_;
+    // Whether we have found a char to split on yet, when reading from stdin.
+    // If explicitly passed, we will always split on NULL,
+    // if not we will split on NULL if the first PATH_MAX chunk includes one,
+    // or '\n' otherwise.
+    bool have_split_;
+    // The char we have decided to split on when reading from stdin.
+    char split_{'\0'};
     // Backing storage for the next() string.
     wcstring storage_;
     const io_streams_t &streams_;
@@ -68,7 +73,7 @@ class arg_iterator_t {
         assert(streams_.stdin_fd >= 0 && "should have a valid fd");
         // Read in chunks from fd until buffer has a line (or the end if split_ is unset).
         size_t pos;
-        while ((pos = buffer_.find(split_)) == std::string::npos) {
+        while (!have_split_ || (pos = buffer_.find(split_)) == std::string::npos) {
             char buf[PATH_CHUNK_SIZE];
             long n = read_blocked(streams_.stdin_fd, buf, PATH_CHUNK_SIZE);
             if (n == 0) {
@@ -88,6 +93,14 @@ class arg_iterator_t {
                 return false;
             }
             buffer_.append(buf, n);
+            if (!have_split_) {
+                if (buffer_.find('\0') != std::string::npos) {
+                    split_ = '\0';
+                } else {
+                    split_ = '\n';
+                }
+                have_split_ = true;
+            }
         }
 
         // Split the buffer on the sep and return the first part.
@@ -97,9 +110,8 @@ class arg_iterator_t {
     }
 
    public:
-    arg_iterator_t(const wchar_t *const *argv, int argidx, const io_streams_t &streams,
-                   char split = '\n')
-        : argv_(argv), argidx_(argidx), split_(split), streams_(streams) {}
+    arg_iterator_t(const wchar_t *const *argv, int argidx, const io_streams_t &streams, bool split_null)
+        : argv_(argv), argidx_(argidx), have_split_(split_null), streams_(streams) {}
 
     const wcstring *nextstr() {
         if (path_args_from_stdin(streams_)) {
@@ -360,7 +372,7 @@ static int path_transform(parser_t &parser, io_streams_t &streams, int argc, con
     if (retval != STATUS_CMD_OK) return retval;
 
     int n_transformed = 0;
-    arg_iterator_t aiter(argv, optind, streams, opts.null_in ? '\0' : '\n');
+    arg_iterator_t aiter(argv, optind, streams, opts.null_in);
     while (const wcstring *arg = aiter.nextstr()) {
         wcstring transformed(*arg);
         // Empty paths make no sense, but e.g. wbasename returns true for them.
@@ -495,7 +507,7 @@ static int path_extension(parser_t &parser, io_streams_t &streams, int argc, con
     if (retval != STATUS_CMD_OK) return retval;
 
     int n_transformed = 0;
-    arg_iterator_t aiter(argv, optind, streams, opts.null_in ? '\0' : '\n');
+    arg_iterator_t aiter(argv, optind, streams, opts.null_in);
     while (const wcstring *arg = aiter.nextstr()) {
         auto pos = find_extension(*arg);
 
@@ -524,7 +536,7 @@ static int path_strip_extension(parser_t &parser, io_streams_t &streams, int arg
     if (retval != STATUS_CMD_OK) return retval;
 
     int n_transformed = 0;
-    arg_iterator_t aiter(argv, optind, streams, opts.null_in ? '\0' : '\n');
+    arg_iterator_t aiter(argv, optind, streams, opts.null_in);
     while (const wcstring *arg = aiter.nextstr()) {
         auto pos = find_extension(*arg);
 
@@ -557,7 +569,7 @@ static int path_real(parser_t &parser, io_streams_t &streams, int argc, const wc
     if (retval != STATUS_CMD_OK) return retval;
 
     int n_transformed = 0;
-    arg_iterator_t aiter(argv, optind, streams, opts.null_in ? '\0' : '\n');
+    arg_iterator_t aiter(argv, optind, streams, opts.null_in);
     while (const wcstring *arg = aiter.nextstr()) {
         auto real = wrealpath(*arg);
 
@@ -589,7 +601,7 @@ static int path_filter(parser_t &parser, io_streams_t &streams, int argc, const
     if (retval != STATUS_CMD_OK) return retval;
 
     int n_transformed = 0;
-    arg_iterator_t aiter(argv, optind, streams, opts.null_in ? '\0' : '\n');
+    arg_iterator_t aiter(argv, optind, streams, opts.null_in);
     while (const wcstring *arg = aiter.nextstr()) {
         if ((!opts.invert || (!opts.have_perm && !opts.have_type)) && filter_path(opts, *arg)) {
             // If we don't have filters, check if it exists.