Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Results for 38 of 40 languages from this run on actest1.

Unavailable in this run: Hack, Lisp. Follow the run link for failure details.

Zig VS Python benchmarks

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

CONTRIBUTIONS are WELCOME!

[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.)

binarytrees

Input: 18

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2945ms 28ms 49.1MB 2920ms 7ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 11298ms 16ms 42.2MB 11140ms 137ms cpython 3.12.3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 280ms 53ms 7.1MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 1013ms 82ms 14.0MB 993ms 3ms cpython 3.12.3

edigits

Input: 250001

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
python 1.py 786ms 5.0ms 15.6MB 770ms 0ms cpython 3.12.3
zig 1.zig 5068ms 18ms 2.4MB 5030ms 20ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
python 1.py 290ms 1.1ms 14.8MB 273ms 7ms cpython 3.12.3
zig 1.zig 841ms 12ms 2.0MB 823ms 3ms zig 0.14.1

fannkuch-redux

Input: 11

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 833ms 6.5ms 1.5MB 3140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 1413ms 43ms 1.1MB 1400ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 2763ms 12ms 1.1MB 2753ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 77ms 2.6ms 1.5MB 243ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 124ms 4.7ms 1.1MB 113ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 239ms 3.8ms 1.1MB 227ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

fasta

Input: 2500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 138ms 0.5ms 1.1MB 127ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 5-m.py 4266ms 218ms 18.4MB 7193ms 1040ms cpython 3.12.3
python 1.py 6168ms 31ms 10.1MB 6150ms 7ms cpython 3.12.3

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 17ms 1.2ms 1.1MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 648ms 13ms 10.1MB 633ms 3ms cpython 3.12.3
python 5-m.py 719ms 17ms 18.5MB 943ms 193ms cpython 3.12.3

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 1.3ms 0.5ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 24ms 2.6ms 10.2MB 16ms 0ms cpython 3.12.3

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 798ms 15ms 66.9MB 2580ms 27ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 1043ms 10ms 26.3MB 1013ms 7ms zig 0.14.1
python 3-m.py 10152ms 192ms 39.2MB 38327ms 140ms cpython 3.12.3

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 117ms 4.2ms 55.0MB 293ms 43ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 130ms 6.2ms 15.5MB 107ms 3ms zig 0.14.1
python 3-m.py 1341ms 2.3ms 19.9MB 4197ms 93ms cpython 3.12.3

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 51ms 1.5ms 2.7MB 40ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 1596ms 22ms 13.1MB 1573ms 3ms cpython 3.12.3
python 2.py 1925ms 15ms 10.1MB 1907ms 3ms cpython 3.12.3

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 143ms 5.9ms 2.7MB 133ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 4622ms 61ms 13.2MB 4603ms 3ms cpython 3.12.3
python 2.py 5717ms 152ms 10.2MB 5700ms 0ms cpython 3.12.3

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 26ms 0.9ms 1.1MB 13ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 773ms 12ms 13.1MB 760ms 0ms cpython 3.12.3
python 2.py 941ms 8.5ms 10.1MB 927ms 0ms cpython 3.12.3

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 350ms 2.1ms 4.2MB 340ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 17ms 0.6ms 1.1MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 1494ms 63ms 41.2MB 1463ms 13ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 34848ms 576ms 107.3MB 34757ms 73ms cpython 3.12.3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 267ms 4.3ms 11.0MB 253ms 3ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 5815ms 33ms 34.4MB 5790ms 7ms cpython 3.12.3

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 379ms 3.1ms 1.1MB 370ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 470ms 2.9ms 1.1MB 457ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 510ms 3.2ms 1.1MB 500ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 39068ms 95ms 10.2MB 39050ms 0ms cpython 3.12.3
python 2.py 41152ms 307ms 11.3MB 41133ms 0ms cpython 3.12.3

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 42ms 3.2ms 1.1MB 33ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 50ms 2.1ms 1.1MB 40ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 56ms 2.3ms 1.1MB 47ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 1.py 3811ms 20ms 10.2MB 3797ms 0ms cpython 3.12.3
python 2.py 4147ms 89ms 10.2MB 4137ms 0ms cpython 3.12.3

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2.zig 552ms 15ms 6.0MB 543ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 958ms 9.6ms 40.1MB 940ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 2.py 6899ms 14ms 635.1MB 6690ms 190ms cpython 3.12.3
python 1.py 16789ms 193ms 322.8MB 16707ms 63ms cpython 3.12.3

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2.zig 107ms 1.3ms 2.2MB 100ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 170ms 4.1ms 11.0MB 160ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 2.py 1734ms 18ms 166.4MB 1677ms 43ms cpython 3.12.3
python 1.py 3963ms 65ms 88.2MB 3933ms 10ms cpython 3.12.3

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
python 4.py 3045ms 90ms 10.4MB 3027ms 3ms cpython 3.12.3
zig 1.zig 3461ms 6.4ms 2.3MB 3433ms 13ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
python 4.py 733ms 3.8ms 10.1MB 720ms 0ms cpython 3.12.3
zig 1.zig 854ms 121ms 1.9MB 837ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 11057ms 6.2ms 1.1MB 11043ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 8.py timeout (300s) — — — — cpython 3.12.3

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2773ms 1.4ms 1.1MB 2757ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 8.py timeout (120s) — — — — cpython 3.12.3

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 697ms 1.0ms 1.1MB 690ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
python 8-m.py 34942ms 580ms 20.5MB 135877ms 227ms cpython 3.12.3