diff --git a/lib/Server.js b/lib/Server.js
index 19631099ab..47c3c58877 100644
--- a/lib/Server.js
+++ b/lib/Server.js
@@ -1860,6 +1860,25 @@ class Server {
         (this.options.webSocketServer).options
       ).path;
 
+    // Normalize a URL path for HMR-path comparison: lowercase, decode
+    // percent-encoding (so `/%77%73` matches `/ws`), and strip trailing
+    // slashes. Returns null when decoding fails on malformed percent escapes.
+    /**
+     * @param {string} pathToNormalize URL path to normalize for HMR comparison.
+     * @returns {string | null} Normalized path, or null on decode failure.
+     */
+    const normalizeHmrPath = (pathToNormalize) => {
+      try {
+        return decodeURIComponent(pathToNormalize)
+          .toLowerCase()
+          .replace(/\/+$/, "");
+      } catch {
+        return null;
+      }
+    };
+
+    const normalizedHmrPath = hmrPath ? normalizeHmrPath(hmrPath) : null;
+
     for (const webSocketProxy of webSocketProxies) {
       const proxyUpgrade =
         /** @type {RequestHandler & { upgrade: NonNullable<RequestHandler["upgrade"]> }} */
@@ -1867,9 +1886,24 @@ class Server {
 
       /** @type {S} */
       (this.server).on("upgrade", (req, socket, head) => {
-        if (hmrPath && req.url) {
-          const { pathname } = new URL(req.url, "http://0.0.0.0");
-          if (pathname === hmrPath) {
+        if (
+          normalizedHmrPath &&
+          typeof req.url === "string" &&
+          req.url.startsWith("/")
+        ) {
+          // Collapse leading multiple-slashes so `//ws` is not parsed as a
+          // scheme-relative URL (which would yield `pathname === "/"` and
+          // bypass the HMR-path filter).
+          const cleanUrl = req.url.replace(/^\/+/, "/");
+          let pathname;
+          try {
+            ({ pathname } = new URL(cleanUrl, "http://0.0.0.0"));
+          } catch {
+            // Malformed URL: fail closed (do not forward to proxy).
+            return;
+          }
+          const normalized = normalizeHmrPath(pathname);
+          if (normalized !== null && normalized === normalizedHmrPath) {
             return;
           }
         }
diff --git a/test/server/proxy-option.test.js b/test/server/proxy-option.test.js
index c82e56d13e..4c0f9daf35 100644
--- a/test/server/proxy-option.test.js
+++ b/test/server/proxy-option.test.js
@@ -859,6 +859,90 @@ describe("proxy option", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  describe("HMR upgrade path matching tolerates URL variants of the configured path", () => {
+    let server;
+    let backend;
+    let backendUpgradeCount;
+
+    beforeAll(async () => {
+      backendUpgradeCount = 0;
+
+      backend = http.createServer();
+      new WebSocketServer({ server: backend }).on("connection", () => {
+        backendUpgradeCount += 1;
+      });
+
+      await new Promise((resolve) => {
+        backend.listen(port5, resolve);
+      });
+
+      const compiler = webpack(config);
+
+      server = new Server(
+        {
+          hot: true,
+          allowedHosts: "all",
+          webSocketServer: "ws",
+          proxy: [
+            {
+              context: "/",
+              target: `http://localhost:${port5}`,
+              ws: true,
+            },
+          ],
+          port: port3,
+        },
+        compiler,
+      );
+
+      await server.start();
+    });
+
+    afterAll(async () => {
+      backend.closeAllConnections();
+      await server.stop();
+      await new Promise((resolve) => {
+        backend.close(resolve);
+      });
+    });
+
+    // The HMR server's default path is /ws. These variants should all be
+    // recognized as the HMR socket and not forwarded through the user proxy.
+    const variants = [
+      ["trailing slash", "/ws/"],
+      ["uppercase", "/WS"],
+      ["mixed case", "/wS"],
+      ["percent-encoded path", "/%77%73"],
+      ["leading double slash", "//ws"],
+    ];
+
+    it.each(variants)(
+      "treats %s (%s) as the HMR upgrade path",
+      async (_label, path) => {
+        const before = backendUpgradeCount;
+
+        const ws = new WebSocket(`ws://localhost:${port3}${path}`);
+        ws.on("error", () => {});
+
+        await new Promise((resolve) => {
+          setTimeout(resolve, 400);
+        });
+
+        try {
+          ws.close();
+        } catch {
+          // ignore close errors on already-failed sockets
+        }
+
+        await new Promise((resolve) => {
+          setTimeout(resolve, 200);
+        });
+
+        expect(backendUpgradeCount).toBe(before);
+      },
+    );
+  });
+
   describe("should supports http methods", () => {
     let server;
     let req;