diff --git a/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/package.json b/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/package.json
index c587778955bb..86dcc557128c 100644
--- a/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/package.json
+++ b/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/package.json
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@
     "@smithy/smithy-client": "^3.1.8",
     "@smithy/types": "^3.3.0",
     "@smithy/util-config-provider": "^3.0.0",
+    "@smithy/util-stream": "^3.0.6",
+    "@smithy/util-utf8": "^3.0.0",
     "tslib": "^2.6.2"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
diff --git a/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/src/throw-200-exceptions.spec.ts b/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/src/throw-200-exceptions.spec.ts
index e9cdbb56838d..031631803c4c 100644
--- a/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/src/throw-200-exceptions.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/src/throw-200-exceptions.spec.ts
@@ -1,15 +1,14 @@
 import { HttpRequest, HttpResponse } from "@smithy/protocol-http";
+import { toUtf8 } from "@smithy/util-utf8";
+import { Readable } from "stream";
 
 import { throw200ExceptionsMiddleware } from "./throw-200-exceptions";
 
 describe("throw200ExceptionsMiddlewareOptions", () => {
   const mockNextHandler = jest.fn();
-  const mockStreamCollector = jest.fn();
-  const mockUtf8Encoder = jest.fn();
   const mockResponse = jest.fn();
   const mockConfig = {
-    streamCollector: mockStreamCollector,
-    utf8Encoder: mockUtf8Encoder,
+    utf8Encoder: toUtf8,
   };
 
   beforeEach(() => {
@@ -17,9 +16,6 @@ describe("throw200ExceptionsMiddlewareOptions", () => {
   });
 
   describe("tests for statusCode < 200 and >= 300", () => {
-    mockStreamCollector.mockResolvedValue(Buffer.from(""));
-    mockUtf8Encoder.mockReturnValue("");
-
     it.each([199, 300])("results for statusCode %i", async (statusCode) => {
       mockNextHandler.mockReturnValue({
         response: mockResponse,
@@ -39,13 +35,11 @@ describe("throw200ExceptionsMiddlewareOptions", () => {
 
     it("should throw if response body is empty", async () => {
       expect.assertions(3);
-      mockStreamCollector.mockResolvedValue(Buffer.from(""));
-      mockUtf8Encoder.mockReturnValue("");
       mockNextHandler.mockReturnValue({
         response: new HttpResponse({
           statusCode: 200,
           headers: {},
-          body: "",
+          body: Readable.from(Buffer.from("")),
         }),
       });
       const handler = throw200ExceptionsMiddleware(mockConfig)(mockNextHandler, {
@@ -73,13 +67,11 @@ describe("throw200ExceptionsMiddlewareOptions", () => {
       <RequestId>656c76696e6727732072657175657374</RequestId>
       <HostId>Uuag1LuByRx9e6j5Onimru9pO4ZVKnJ2Qz7/C1NPcfTWAtRPfTaOFg==</HostId>
     </Error>`;
-      mockStreamCollector.mockResolvedValue(Buffer.from(errorBody));
-      mockUtf8Encoder.mockReturnValue(errorBody);
       mockNextHandler.mockReturnValue({
         response: new HttpResponse({
           statusCode: 200,
           headers: {},
-          body: "",
+          body: Readable.from(Buffer.from(errorBody)),
         }),
       });
       const handler = throw200ExceptionsMiddleware(mockConfig)(mockNextHandler, {} as any);
@@ -106,13 +98,40 @@ describe("throw200ExceptionsMiddlewareOptions", () => {
   <Message>Access Denied</Message>
  </Error>
 </DeleteResult>`;
-      mockStreamCollector.mockResolvedValue(Buffer.from(errorBody));
-      mockUtf8Encoder.mockReturnValue(errorBody);
       mockNextHandler.mockReturnValue({
         response: new HttpResponse({
           statusCode: 200,
           headers: {},
-          body: "",
+          body: Readable.from(Buffer.from(errorBody)),
+        }),
+      });
+      const handler = throw200ExceptionsMiddleware(mockConfig)(mockNextHandler, {} as any);
+      const { response } = await handler({
+        input: {},
+        request: new HttpRequest({
+          hostname: "s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com",
+        }),
+      });
+      expect(HttpResponse.isInstance(response)).toBe(true);
+      // @ts-ignore
+      expect(response.statusCode).toEqual(200);
+    });
+
+    /**
+     * This is an exception to the specification. We cannot afford to read
+     * a streaming body for its entire duration just to check for an extremely unlikely
+     * terminating XML tag if the stream is very long.
+     */
+    it("should not throw if the Error tag is on an excessively long body", async () => {
+      const errorBody = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<Error xmlns="http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/2006-03-01/">
+ ${"a".repeat(3000)}
+</Error>`;
+      mockNextHandler.mockReturnValue({
+        response: new HttpResponse({
+          statusCode: 200,
+          headers: {},
+          body: Readable.from(Buffer.from(errorBody)),
         }),
       });
       const handler = throw200ExceptionsMiddleware(mockConfig)(mockNextHandler, {} as any);
diff --git a/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/src/throw-200-exceptions.ts b/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/src/throw-200-exceptions.ts
index c7c5176bf095..451efa52833c 100644
--- a/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/src/throw-200-exceptions.ts
+++ b/packages/middleware-sdk-s3/src/throw-200-exceptions.ts
@@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ import {
   RelativeMiddlewareOptions,
   StreamCollector,
 } from "@smithy/types";
+import { headStream, splitStream } from "@smithy/util-stream";
 
 type PreviouslyResolved = {
-  streamCollector: StreamCollector;
   utf8Encoder: Encoder;
 };
 
@@ -22,6 +22,13 @@ const THROW_IF_EMPTY_BODY: Record<string, boolean> = {
   CompleteMultipartUploadCommand: true,
 };
 
+/**
+ * @internal
+ * We will check at most this many bytes from the stream when looking for
+ * an error-like 200 status.
+ */
+const MAX_BYTES_TO_INSPECT = 3000;
+
 /**
  * In case of an internal error/terminated connection, S3 operations may return 200 errors. CopyObject, UploadPartCopy,
  * CompleteMultipartUpload may return empty payload or payload with only xml Preamble.
@@ -36,12 +43,25 @@ export const throw200ExceptionsMiddleware =
     if (!HttpResponse.isInstance(response)) {
       return result;
     }
-    const { statusCode, body } = response;
+    const { statusCode, body: sourceBody } = response;
     if (statusCode < 200 || statusCode >= 300) {
       return result;
     }
 
-    const bodyBytes: Uint8Array = await collectBody(body, config);
+    let bodyCopy = sourceBody;
+    let body = sourceBody;
+
+    if (sourceBody && typeof sourceBody === "object" && !(sourceBody instanceof Uint8Array)) {
+      [bodyCopy, body] = await splitStream(sourceBody);
+    }
+    // restore split body to the response for deserialization.
+    response.body = body;
+
+    const bodyBytes: Uint8Array = await collectBody(bodyCopy, {
+      streamCollector: async (stream: any) => {
+        return headStream(stream, MAX_BYTES_TO_INSPECT);
+      },
+    });
     const bodyStringTail = config.utf8Encoder(bodyBytes.subarray(bodyBytes.length - 16));
 
     // Throw on 200 response with empty body, legacy behavior allowlist.
@@ -56,14 +76,16 @@ export const throw200ExceptionsMiddleware =
       response.statusCode = 400;
     }
 
-    // Body stream is consumed and paused at this point. So replace the response.body to the collected bytes.
-    // So that the deserializer can consume the body as normal.
-    response.body = bodyBytes;
     return result;
   };
 
-// Collect low-level response body stream to Uint8Array.
-const collectBody = (streamBody: any = new Uint8Array(), context: PreviouslyResolved): Promise<Uint8Array> => {
+/**
+ * @internal
+ */
+const collectBody = (
+  streamBody: any = new Uint8Array(),
+  context: { streamCollector: StreamCollector }
+): Promise<Uint8Array> => {
   if (streamBody instanceof Uint8Array) {
     return Promise.resolve(streamBody);
   }