diff --git a/lib/_http_client.js b/lib/_http_client.js
index 55f058944ce5f7..5747760b941fd8 100644
--- a/lib/_http_client.js
+++ b/lib/_http_client.js
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ const {
 const Agent = require('_http_agent');
 const { Buffer } = require('buffer');
 const { defaultTriggerAsyncIdScope } = require('internal/async_hooks');
-const { URL, urlToHttpOptions, searchParamsSymbol } = require('internal/url');
+const { URL, urlToHttpOptions, isURL } = require('internal/url');
 const {
   kOutHeaders,
   kNeedDrain,
@@ -138,8 +138,7 @@ function ClientRequest(input, options, cb) {
   if (typeof input === 'string') {
     const urlStr = input;
     input = urlToHttpOptions(new URL(urlStr));
-  } else if (input && input[searchParamsSymbol] &&
-             input[searchParamsSymbol][searchParamsSymbol]) {
+  } else if (isURL(input)) {
     // url.URL instance
     input = urlToHttpOptions(input);
   } else {
diff --git a/lib/https.js b/lib/https.js
index 6aec27235a85a9..12453609f2c452 100644
--- a/lib/https.js
+++ b/lib/https.js
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ const { ClientRequest } = require('_http_client');
 let debug = require('internal/util/debuglog').debuglog('https', (fn) => {
   debug = fn;
 });
-const { URL, urlToHttpOptions, searchParamsSymbol } = require('internal/url');
+const { URL, urlToHttpOptions, isURL } = require('internal/url');
 
 function Server(opts, requestListener) {
   if (!(this instanceof Server)) return new Server(opts, requestListener);
@@ -344,9 +344,7 @@ function request(...args) {
   if (typeof args[0] === 'string') {
     const urlStr = ArrayPrototypeShift(args);
     options = urlToHttpOptions(new URL(urlStr));
-  } else if (args[0] && args[0][searchParamsSymbol] &&
-             args[0][searchParamsSymbol][searchParamsSymbol]) {
-    // url.URL instance
+  } else if (isURL(args[0])) {
     options = urlToHttpOptions(ArrayPrototypeShift(args));
   }
 
diff --git a/lib/internal/url.js b/lib/internal/url.js
index 30eb57296c0e6d..7d3efd426a6c5c 100644
--- a/lib/internal/url.js
+++ b/lib/internal/url.js
@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ class URLSearchParams {
     } else {
       // https://url.spec.whatwg.org/#dom-urlsearchparams-urlsearchparams
       init = toUSVString(init);
-      initSearchParams(this, init);
+      this[searchParams] = init ? parseParams(init) : [];
     }
   }
 
@@ -557,7 +557,7 @@ ObjectDefineProperties(URLSearchParams.prototype, {
   },
 });
 
-function isURLThis(self) {
+function isURL(self) {
   return self != null && ObjectPrototypeHasOwnProperty(self, context);
 }
 
@@ -625,27 +625,25 @@ class URL {
     ctx.password = password;
     ctx.port = port;
     ctx.hash = hash;
-    if (!this[searchParams]) { // Invoked from URL constructor
-      this[searchParams] = new URLSearchParams();
-      this[searchParams][context] = this;
+    if (this[searchParams]) {
+      this[searchParams][searchParams] = parseParams(search);
     }
-    initSearchParams(this[searchParams], ctx.search);
   };
 
   toString() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].href;
   }
 
   get href() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].href;
   }
 
   set href(value) {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     const valid = updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kHref, `${value}`, this.#onParseComplete);
     if (!valid) { throw ERR_INVALID_URL(`${value}`); }
@@ -653,49 +651,49 @@ class URL {
 
   // readonly
   get origin() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].origin;
   }
 
   get protocol() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].protocol;
   }
 
   set protocol(value) {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kProtocol, `${value}`, this.#onParseComplete);
   }
 
   get username() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].username;
   }
 
   set username(value) {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kUsername, `${value}`, this.#onParseComplete);
   }
 
   get password() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].password;
   }
 
   set password(value) {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kPassword, `${value}`, this.#onParseComplete);
   }
 
   get host() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     const port = this[context].port;
     const suffix = port.length > 0 ? `:${port}` : '';
@@ -703,82 +701,85 @@ class URL {
   }
 
   set host(value) {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kHost, `${value}`, this.#onParseComplete);
   }
 
   get hostname() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].hostname;
   }
 
   set hostname(value) {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kHostname, `${value}`, this.#onParseComplete);
   }
 
   get port() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].port;
   }
 
   set port(value) {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kPort, `${value}`, this.#onParseComplete);
   }
 
   get pathname() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].pathname;
   }
 
   set pathname(value) {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kPathname, `${value}`, this.#onParseComplete);
   }
 
   get search() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].search;
   }
 
-  set search(search) {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+  set search(value) {
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
-    search = toUSVString(search);
-    updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kSearch, search, this.#onParseComplete);
-    initSearchParams(this[searchParams], this[context].search);
+    updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kSearch, toUSVString(value), this.#onParseComplete);
   }
 
   // readonly
   get searchParams() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
+    // Create URLSearchParams on demand to greatly improve the URL performance.
+    if (this[searchParams] == null) {
+      this[searchParams] = new URLSearchParams(this[context].search);
+      this[searchParams][context] = this;
+    }
     return this[searchParams];
   }
 
   get hash() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].hash;
   }
 
   set hash(value) {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     updateUrl(this[context].href, updateActions.kHash, `${value}`, this.#onParseComplete);
   }
 
   toJSON() {
-    if (!isURLThis(this))
+    if (!isURL(this))
       throw new ERR_INVALID_THIS('URL');
     return this[context].href;
   }
@@ -836,14 +837,6 @@ ObjectDefineProperties(URL, {
   revokeObjectURL: kEnumerableProperty,
 });
 
-function initSearchParams(url, init) {
-  if (!init) {
-    url[searchParams] = [];
-    return;
-  }
-  url[searchParams] = parseParams(init);
-}
-
 // application/x-www-form-urlencoded parser
 // Ref: https://url.spec.whatwg.org/#concept-urlencoded-parser
 function parseParams(qs) {
@@ -1168,9 +1161,9 @@ function urlToHttpOptions(url) {
     __proto__: null,
     ...url, // In case the url object was extended by the user.
     protocol: url.protocol,
-    hostname: typeof url.hostname === 'string' && StringPrototypeStartsWith(hostname, '[') ?
-      StringPrototypeSlice(hostname, 1, -1) :
-      hostname,
+    hostname: url.hostname && StringPrototypeStartsWith(url.hostname, '[') ?
+      StringPrototypeSlice(url.hostname, 1, -1) :
+      url.hostname,
     hash: url.hash,
     search: search,
     pathname: pathname,
@@ -1339,6 +1332,6 @@ module.exports = {
   domainToASCII,
   domainToUnicode,
   urlToHttpOptions,
-  searchParamsSymbol: searchParams,
   encodeStr,
+  isURL,
 };
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-whatwg-url-properties.js b/test/parallel/test-whatwg-url-properties.js
index 69ce14a431a9b7..b76832a7d30912 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-whatwg-url-properties.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-whatwg-url-properties.js
@@ -73,6 +73,13 @@ const { URL, URLSearchParams, format } = require('url');
   assert.strictEqual(params.size, 3);
 }
 
+{
+  const u = new URL('https://abc.com/?q=old');
+  const s = u.searchParams;
+  u.href = 'http://abc.com/?q=new';
+  assert.strictEqual(s.get('q'), 'new');
+}
+
 function stringifyName(name) {
   if (typeof name === 'symbol') {
     const { description } = name;