Does awaiting an asynchronous method always create a new thread?

No. await arranges continuation when an awaitable completes and does not itself create a thread. Genuine asynchronous I/O can release the current thread while waiting, whereas CPU-heavy work still needs execution capacity. Task.Run schedules work on the thread pool but is not a replacement for asynchronous I/O APIs. Avoid blocking with Result or Wait in asynchronous paths because it can reduce throughput and can deadlock in some synchronization contexts. Propagate cancellation and exceptions deliberately, and retu Task from asynchronous operations except where an event-handler signature requires otherwise.