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C 4 photosynthesis is a complex set of leaf anatomical and biochemical adaptations that have evolved more than 60 times to boost carbon uptake compared with the ancestral C 3 photosynthetic type 1–3. Although C 4 photosynthesis has the potential to drive faster growth rates 4, 5, experiments directly comparing C 3 and C 4 plants have not shown consistent effects 1, 6, 7. This is problematic because differential growth is a crucial element of ecological theory 8, 9 explaining C 4 savannah responses to global change 10, 11, and research to increase C 3 crop productivity by introducing C 4 photosynthesis 12. Here, we resolve this long-standing issue by comparing growth across 382 grass species, accounting for ecological diversity and evolutionary history. C 4 photosynthesis causes a 19–88% daily growth enhancement. Unexpectedly, during the critical seedling establishment stage, this enhancement is driven …