diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 654626c4c..3cba4b99e 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 ## Current
+* core.match_filter.template
+  - new quick_group_templates function for 50x quicker template grouping.
 * core.match_filter
   - 30x speedup in handling detections (50x speedup in selecting detections,
     4x speedup in adding prepick time)
diff --git a/eqcorrscan/core/match_filter/template.py b/eqcorrscan/core/match_filter/template.py
index 8b792de90..ba8955c3b 100644
--- a/eqcorrscan/core/match_filter/template.py
+++ b/eqcorrscan/core/match_filter/template.py
@@ -105,6 +105,15 @@ def __init__(self, name=None, st=None, lowcut=None, highcut=None,
                                                author=getpass.getuser())))
         self.event = event
 
+    @property
+    def _processing_parameters(self):
+        """
+        Internal function / attribute to return all processing parameters for
+        quick grouping of templates as tuple.
+        """
+        return (self.lowcut, self.highcut, self.samp_rate, self.filt_order,
+                self.process_length)
+
     def __repr__(self):
         """
         Print the template.
@@ -284,12 +293,9 @@ def same_processing(self, other):
         >>> template_a.same_processing(template_b)
         False
         """
-        for key in self.__dict__.keys():
-            if key in ['name', 'st', 'prepick', 'event', 'template_info']:
-                continue
-            if not self.__dict__[key] == other.__dict__[key]:
-                return False
-        return True
+        if self._processing_parameters == other._processing_parameters:
+            return True
+        return False
 
     def write(self, filename, format='tar'):
         """
@@ -707,6 +713,35 @@ def group_templates(templates):
     return template_groups
 
 
+def quick_group_templates(templates):
+    """
+    Group templates into sets of similarly processed templates.
+
+    :type templates: List of Tribe of Templates
+    :return: List of Lists of Templates.
+    """
+    # Get the template's processing parameters
+    processing_tuples = [template._processing_parameters
+                         for template in templates]
+    # Get list of unique parameter-tuples. Sort it so that the order in which
+    # the groups are processed is consistent across different runs.
+    uniq_processing_parameters = sorted(list(set(processing_tuples)))
+    # sort templates into groups
+    template_groups = []
+    for parameter_combination in uniq_processing_parameters:
+        # find indices of tuples in list with same parameters
+        template_indices_for_group = [
+            j for j, param_tuple in enumerate(processing_tuples)
+            if param_tuple == parameter_combination]
+
+        new_group = list()
+        for template_index in template_indices_for_group:
+            # use indices to sort templates into groups
+            new_group.append(templates[int(template_index)])
+        template_groups.append(new_group)
+    return template_groups
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     import doctest
 
diff --git a/eqcorrscan/core/match_filter/tribe.py b/eqcorrscan/core/match_filter/tribe.py
index f03bf77a4..22329c484 100644
--- a/eqcorrscan/core/match_filter/tribe.py
+++ b/eqcorrscan/core/match_filter/tribe.py
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@
 from obspy import Catalog, Stream, read, read_events
 from obspy.core.event import Comment, CreationInfo
 
-from eqcorrscan.core.match_filter.template import Template, group_templates
+from eqcorrscan.core.match_filter.template import (
+    Template, quick_group_templates)
 from eqcorrscan.core.match_filter.party import Party
 from eqcorrscan.core.match_filter.helpers import (
     _safemembers, _par_read, get_waveform_client)
@@ -584,7 +585,8 @@ def detect(self, stream, threshold, threshold_type, trig_int, plot=False,
             length is the number of channels within this template.
         """
         party = Party()
-        template_groups = group_templates(self.templates)
+        # template_groups = group_templates(self.templates)
+        template_groups = quick_group_templates(self.templates)
         if len(template_groups) > 1 and pre_processed:
             raise NotImplementedError(
                 "Inconsistent template processing and pre-processed data - "
diff --git a/eqcorrscan/tests/match_filter_test.py b/eqcorrscan/tests/match_filter_test.py
index 95a8f8a08..dd642dbbb 100644
--- a/eqcorrscan/tests/match_filter_test.py
+++ b/eqcorrscan/tests/match_filter_test.py
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@
 from eqcorrscan.core.match_filter.matched_filter import (
     match_filter, MatchFilterError)
 from eqcorrscan.core.match_filter.helpers import get_waveform_client
+from eqcorrscan.core.match_filter.template import quick_group_templates
+
 from eqcorrscan.utils import pre_processing, catalog_utils
 from eqcorrscan.utils.correlate import fftw_normxcorr, numpy_normxcorr
 from eqcorrscan.utils.catalog_utils import filter_picks
@@ -1342,6 +1344,22 @@ def test_template_io(self):
             if os.path.isfile('test_template.tgz'):
                 os.remove('test_template.tgz')
 
+    def test_template_grouping(self):
+        # PR #524
+        # Test that this works directly on the tribe - it should
+        tribe_len = len(self.tribe)
+        groups = quick_group_templates(self.tribe)
+        self.assertEqual(len(groups), 1)
+        # Add one copy of a template with a different processing length
+        t2 = self.tribe[0].copy()
+        t2.process_length -= 100
+        templates = [t2]
+        templates.extend(self.tribe.templates)
+        # Quick check that we haven't changed the tribe
+        self.assertEqual(len(self.tribe), tribe_len)
+        groups2 = quick_group_templates(templates)
+        self.assertEqual(len(groups2), 2)
+
     def test_party_io(self):
         """Test reading and writing party objects."""
         if os.path.isfile('test_party_out.tgz'):