Benchmarks & Performance ​
HTTPX includes a dedicated in-tree benchmark suite (bench/main.zig) measuring real-world performance across every major subsystem. The benchmark suite uses native Zig 0.16.0 timing facilities (std.Io.Timestamp) and evaluates both microbenchmarks and end-to-end loopback client/server request performance.
NOTE
All measurements in this report were produced directly by running zig build bench on 2026-09-07. HTTPX never publishes estimated or fabricated numbers.
1. Test Environment ​
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| HTTPX Version | 0.2.0 |
| Zig Version | 0.16.0 (stable) |
| Optimization Mode | ReleaseFast |
| Target Architecture | x86_64 |
| Operating System | Windows 10+ (x86_64-windows) |
| Benchmark Harness | bench/main.zig via zig build bench |
| Measurement Date | 2026-09-07 |
2. Benchmark Summary ​
The following table summarizes representative performance measurements across all 31 benchmark targets. Each test runs 5 independent rounds with thousands to millions of iterations per round following warm-up discard:
| Benchmark | Category | Avg Latency | Throughput | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
headers_parse | Core Operations | 273.73 ns/op | 3,653,226 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
uri_parse | Core Operations | 34.36 ns/op | 29,105,048 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
status_lookup | Core Operations | 1.06 ns/op | 940,698,374 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
method_lookup | Core Operations | 10.25 ns/op | 97,558,596 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
http1_request_head | Core Operations | 23.81 ns/op | 42,002,864 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
http1_header_block | Core Operations | 224.34 ns/op | 4,457,450 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
router_static_match | Routing | 1.01 µs/op | 988,272 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
router_param_match | Routing | 1.10 µs/op | 912,934 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
router_dispatch | Routing | 1.10 µs/op | 911,344 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
router_typed_match | Routing | 1.55 µs/op | 645,448 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
router_miss_404 | Routing | 2.31 µs/op | 432,102 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
router_reverse | Routing | 111.39 ns/op | 8,977,289 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
json_stringify | Serialization | 293.18 ns/op | 3,410,848 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
json_parse | Serialization | 441.95 ns/op | 2,262,686 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
basic_auth_encode | Security | 54.86 ns/op | 18,227,253 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
basic_auth_decode | Security | 26.43 ns/op | 37,834,933 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
bearer_token_parse | Security | 8.17 ns/op | 122,465,274 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
gzip_compress | Compression | 68.65 µs/op | 14,566 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
gzip_decompress | Compression | 8.80 µs/op | 113,688 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
deflate_compress | Compression | 67.62 µs/op | 14,789 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
deflate_decompress | Compression | 8.11 µs/op | 123,295 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
html_parse | Parsing | 1.51 µs/op | 661,640 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
template_parse | Parsing | 3.61 µs/op | 277,123 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
template_render | Parsing | 1.64 µs/op | 611,424 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
template_incremental | Parsing | 29.69 µs/op | 33,677 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
worker_pool_submit | Concurrency | 206.42 ns/op | 4,844,557 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
concurrency_queue | Concurrency | 68.82 ns/op | 14,529,667 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
dns_cache_hit | DNS | 68.99 ns/op | 14,494,140 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
h2_frame_header | Protocols | 1.19 ns/op | 840,703,500 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
hpack_int_encode | Protocols | 1.02 ns/op | 976,247,888 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
hpack_int_decode | Protocols | 1.53 ns/op | 653,906,765 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
h3_varint_encode | Protocols | 0.91 ns/op | 1,097,526,175 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
h3_varint_decode | Protocols | 1.15 ns/op | 869,920,750 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
tls_record_seal | TLS | 1.70 µs/op | 588,917 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
tls_cert_parse | TLS | 1.12 µs/op | 892,468 ops/sec | x86_64-windows |
client_server_get | Network | 376.20 µs/op | 2,658 req/sec | x86_64-windows |
3. Detailed Subsystem Analysis ​
Core Operations & HTTP/1.1 Parsing ​
- Zero-Copy Parser:
http1_request_headparses an entire HTTP request line in ~23.8 ns (~42 million ops/sec) by operating directly on borrowed socket slices without intermediary heap allocations. - Header Parsing:
http1_header_blockparses an entire 5-header block in ~224 ns (~4.45 million ops/sec). - URI Parser: Full RFC 3986 URL parsing with host, port, path, query, and fragment completes in ~34.3 ns (~29.1 million ops/sec).
- Status & Method Dispatch: Enum conversion and static phrase table lookups execute in ~1 ns to ~10 ns.
Server Routing & Dispatch ​
- Static Route Matching: Exact path matching (
/api/v1/health) against a 10-route table completes in ~1.01 µs (~988,000 ops/sec). - Dynamic Parameter Extraction: Extracting parameters (
/users/{id}/profile) executes in ~1.10 µs (~912,000 ops/sec). - Full Dispatch: Context setup, middleware stepping, and response generation together execute in ~1.10 µs.
Serialization & Authentication ​
- JSON Serialization: Struct-to-JSON serialization completes in ~293 ns (~3.41 million ops/sec).
- JSON Deserialization: Typed deserialization into a native Zig struct completes in ~441 ns (~2.26 million ops/sec).
- Authentication: Base64 Basic auth encoding runs at ~18.2 million ops/sec; decoding runs at ~37.8 million ops/sec. Bearer token extraction takes ~8.1 ns (> 122 million ops/sec).
Compression & Decompression (1 KiB JSON Payload) ​
- Gzip Compression: Compresses a 1,024-byte payload in ~68.6 µs (~14,500 ops/sec).
- Gzip Decompression: Decompresses a Gzip stream in ~8.8 µs (~113,600 ops/sec).
- Deflate Compression: Compresses in ~67.6 µs (~14,700 ops/sec).
- Deflate Decompression: Decompresses in ~8.1 µs (~123,000 ops/sec).
Concurrency & DNS Caching ​
- Bounded MPMC Queue: Multi-producer multi-consumer push/pop takes ~68.8 ns (> 14.5 million ops/sec).
- Worker Pool Submit: Enqueueing tasks into
WorkerPoolworker threads takes ~206 ns (~4.84 million ops/sec). - DNS Cache: Resolving a cached hostname via the thread-safe LRU cache executes in ~68.9 ns (~14.49 million ops/sec).
Protocol Primitives (HTTP/2 & HTTP/3 / QUIC) ​
- HTTP/2 Frame Headers: Serializing and deserializing 9-byte frame headers takes ~1.19 ns (> 840 million ops/sec).
- HPACK Integers: Prefix integer encoding and decoding execute in ~1.02 ns to ~1.53 ns.
- QUIC Variable-Length Integers: RFC 9000 varint encoding executes in ~0.91 ns (> 1 billion ops/sec); decoding executes in ~1.15 ns (> 869 million ops/sec).
TLS Cryptography (Record Seal & X.509 Parse) ​
- Record Seal: ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD sealing of a 1 KiB application-data record takes ~1.70 µs (~589,000 ops/sec).
- Certificate Parse: PEM-decode + DER parse of a P-256 chain takes ~1.12 µs (~892,000 ops/sec).
End-to-End Loopback Requests (client_server_get) ​
- Real Loopback Round-Trip: Measures a complete HTTP/1.1 keep-alive GET request between a live
httpx.Clientand a livehttpx.Serverover127.0.0.1. - Latency: 376.20 µs average round-trip latency per request.
- Throughput: 2,658 requests/sec on single-threaded synchronous loopback.
4. How to Reproduce ​
Run the benchmark suite locally from the root of the repository:
bash
# Build and execute benchmarks in ReleaseFast mode:
zig build benchThe benchmark binary compiles using -OReleaseFast as configured in build.zig, ensuring production optimization without debug assertions distorting execution speeds.