diff --git a/modules/markup/html.go b/modules/markup/html.go
index a635ce219b..4943bdf4a5 100644
--- a/modules/markup/html.go
+++ b/modules/markup/html.go
@@ -175,16 +175,25 @@ var emojiProcessors = []processor{
 	emojiProcessor,
 }
 
+// isBareURLSubject reports whether the (HTML-escaped) commit subject content
+// is entirely a single URL, ignoring leading/trailing whitespace.
+func isBareURLSubject(content string) bool {
+	s := strings.TrimSpace(html.UnescapeString(content))
+	if s == "" {
+		return false
+	}
+	m := common.GlobalVars().LinkRegex.FindStringIndex(s)
+	return m != nil && m[0] == 0 && m[1] == len(s)
+}
+
 // PostProcessCommitMessageSubject will use the same logic as PostProcess and
 // PostProcessCommitMessage, but will disable the shortLinkProcessor and
-// emailAddressProcessor, will add a defaultLinkProcessor if defaultLink is set,
-// which changes every text node into a link to the passed default link.
+// emailAddressProcessor, and wraps the whole subject in defaultLink.
 func PostProcessCommitMessageSubject(ctx *RenderContext, defaultLink, content string) (string, error) {
 	procs := []processor{
 		fullIssuePatternProcessor,
 		comparePatternProcessor,
 		fullHashPatternProcessor,
-		linkProcessor,
 		mentionProcessor,
 		issueIndexPatternProcessor,
 		commitCrossReferencePatternProcessor,
@@ -192,6 +201,15 @@ func PostProcessCommitMessageSubject(ctx *RenderContext, defaultLink, content st
 		emojiShortCodeProcessor,
 		emojiProcessor,
 	}
+	// When the whole subject is a bare URL, linkProcessor would turn it into
+	// a competing anchor and hijack the surrounding defaultLink wrapper, leaving
+	// the subject visually unclickable. Match GitHub: render such subjects as
+	// plain text inside defaultLink. Partial URLs inside larger text still become
+	// their own links (nested anchors aren't legal HTML, so the outer defaultLink
+	// naturally breaks on that span, same as on GitHub).
+	if !isBareURLSubject(content) {
+		procs = append(procs, linkProcessor)
+	}
 	procs = append(procs, func(ctx *RenderContext, node *html.Node) {
 		ch := &html.Node{Parent: node, Type: html.TextNode, Data: node.Data}
 		node.Type = html.ElementNode
diff --git a/modules/templates/util_render_test.go b/modules/templates/util_render_test.go
index f732be014a..be1190cc49 100644
--- a/modules/templates/util_render_test.go
+++ b/modules/templates/util_render_test.go
@@ -140,6 +140,18 @@ com 88fc37a3c0a4dda553bdcfc80c178a58247f42fb mit
 		assert.EqualValues(t, expected, newTestRenderUtils(t).RenderCommitMessageLinkSubject(testInput(), "https://example.com/link", mockRepo))
 	})
 
+	t.Run("RenderCommitMessageLinkSubjectURLOnly", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// a bare URL in the subject must not hijack the default link
+		expected := `<a href="https://example.com/link" class="muted">https://example.com/file.bin</a>`
+		assert.EqualValues(t, expected, newTestRenderUtils(t).RenderCommitMessageLinkSubject("https://example.com/file.bin", "https://example.com/link", mockRepo))
+	})
+
+	t.Run("RenderCommitMessageLinkSubjectPartialURL", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// a URL embedded in larger subject text still becomes its own link
+		expected := `<a href="https://example.com/link" class="muted">see </a><a href="https://example.com/x" data-markdown-generated-content="">https://example.com/x</a><a href="https://example.com/link" class="muted"> here</a>`
+		assert.EqualValues(t, expected, newTestRenderUtils(t).RenderCommitMessageLinkSubject("see https://example.com/x here", "https://example.com/link", mockRepo))
+	})
+
 	t.Run("RenderIssueTitle", func(t *testing.T) {
 		defer test.MockVariableValue(&markup.RenderBehaviorForTesting.DisableAdditionalAttributes, true)()
 		expected := `  space @mention-user<SPACE><SPACE>