Lua VS Ruby benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Sun Sep 27 2026, full log can be found HERE

CONTRIBUTIONS are WELCOME!

CPU INFO:[x86_64][4 cores] Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3687U CPU @ 2.10GHz (Model 58)

* -m in a file name stands for multi-threading or multi-processing

* -i in a file name stands for direct intrinsics usage. (Usage of simd intrinsics via libraries is not counted)

* -ffi in a file name stands for non-stdlib FFI usage

* (You may find time < time(user) + time(sys) for some non-parallelized programs, the overhead is from GC or JIT compiler, which are allowed to take advantage of multi-cores as that's more close to real-world scenarios.)

show numbers without parallelization

show numbers with parallelization

binarytrees

Input: 18

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	6633ms	183ms	291.4MB	6527ms	87ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
ruby	1.rb	11360ms	112ms	87.8MB	11283ms	57ms	ruby 3.2.3
ruby	1.rb	11813ms	6.3ms	87.9MB	11740ms	57ms	ruby/yjit 3.2.3
lua	1.lua	16420ms	378ms	152.3MB	16370ms	30ms	lua 5.4.6

Input: 15

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	578ms	29ms	24.9MB	553ms	3ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
ruby	1.rb	1118ms	12ms	30.2MB	1087ms	17ms	ruby 3.2.3
ruby	1.rb	1172ms	15ms	30.3MB	1137ms	20ms	ruby/yjit 3.2.3
lua	1.lua	1185ms	23ms	17.5MB	1173ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	1.6ms	0.3ms	2.4MB	0ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	2.2ms	0.4ms	1.8MB	0ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6
ruby	1.rb	85ms	4.7ms	22.6MB	64ms	12ms	ruby/yjit 3.2.3
ruby	1.rb	95ms	7.0ms	22.5MB	62ms	18ms	ruby 3.2.3

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	15068ms	464ms	183.4MB	14980ms	70ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	18968ms	144ms	107.9MB	18917ms	33ms	lua 5.4.6
ruby	1.rb	27746ms	105ms	103.9MB	27650ms	80ms	ruby 3.2.3
ruby	1.rb	27918ms	153ms	104.0MB	27813ms	87ms	ruby/yjit 3.2.3

Input: 15

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	2066ms	2.3ms	36.3MB	2040ms	7ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	3347ms	133ms	28.8MB	3327ms	3ms	lua 5.4.6
ruby	1.rb	6147ms	56ms	44.0MB	6087ms	47ms	ruby/yjit 3.2.3
ruby	1.rb	6156ms	36ms	44.0MB	6097ms	43ms	ruby 3.2.3

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	4.lua	1312ms	8.1ms	1.6MB	1303ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	4.lua	19839ms	364ms	1.8MB	19823ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6
ruby	2.rb	46837ms	1570ms	22.6MB	46803ms	13ms	ruby 3.2.3
ruby	2.rb	47090ms	429ms	22.5MB	47053ms	13ms	ruby/yjit 3.2.3

Input: 500000

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	4.lua	139ms	4.9ms	1.5MB	127ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	4.lua	1941ms	5.9ms	1.8MB	1927ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6
ruby	2.rb	4685ms	47ms	22.6MB	4660ms	7ms	ruby/yjit 3.2.3
ruby	2.rb	4697ms	102ms	22.5MB	4673ms	10ms	ruby 3.2.3

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	11058ms	4.0ms	2.6MB	11047ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	167091ms	2385ms	2.9MB	167067ms	3ms	lua 5.4.6
ruby	4.rb	timeout (300s)	—	—	—	—	ruby 3.2.3
ruby	4.rb	timeout (300s)	—	—	—	—	ruby/yjit 3.2.3

Input: 4000

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	2774ms	9.6ms	2.7MB	2760ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	41466ms	392ms	2.6MB	41447ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6
ruby	4.rb	108151ms	898ms	24.1MB	108120ms	10ms	ruby 3.2.3
ruby	4.rb	timeout (120s)	—	—	—	—	ruby/yjit 3.2.3

Input: 2000

lang	code	time	stddev	peak-mem mem	time(user)	time(sys)	compiler compiler/runtime
lua	1.lua	698ms	2.1ms	1.5MB	687ms	0ms	luajit 2.1.1703358377
lua	1.lua	10267ms	17ms	1.7MB	10257ms	0ms	lua 5.4.6
ruby	4.rb	27651ms	1140ms	23.4MB	27623ms	10ms	ruby/yjit 3.2.3
ruby	4.rb	28446ms	2206ms	23.3MB	28410ms	13ms	ruby 3.2.3