> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt).
> Markdown versions of each page are available by appending .md to any URL.

# Performance benchmarks

This is a short comparison of different terminals and their performance.

## Terminal apps selected for these benchmarks

We benchmarked Warp against 4 other terminal emulators, chosen for their popularity as well as their language and design principles. Here’s why we included each one in this comparison:

-   Terminal.app - the default terminal app available on macOS;
-   iTerm2 - one of the most popular terminal emulators used by macOS users;
-   Alacritty & WezTerm - both of those terminals are written in Rust and are well-known for their speed and overall performance, which Warp aims to match.

### Versions & settings used during the comparison

| Terminal | Version | Terminal size (cols / rows, window is identical pixel-wise) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Warp | v0.2022.04.01.01.37.stable\_03 | 208 cols / 54 rows |
| Terminal.app | Version 2.11 (440) | 188 cols / 72 rows |
| iTerm2 | Build 3.4.15 | 211 cols / 78 rows |
| Alacritty | alacritty 0.10.1 (2844606) | 286 cols / 102 rows |
| WezTerm | 20220319-142410-0fcdea07 | 243 cols / 80 rows |

### About benchmarks

We link the source code of each benchmark used, so you can easily reproduce the tests with other terminal apps. Please note that those benchmarks are not exhaustive. Comparing terminal emulators with each other is not an easy task — right now we’re checking how each of the apps behaves when dealing with lots of input and/or output.

Ideally, the benchmarks would also cover the latency (time between pressing a key and the character showing on the screen, but also a delay between the user’s input and communication with the shell). We may include tests that account for that in the future.

## VTE benchmark

Benchmark code is available in the [Alacritty VTE benchmark repository](https://github.com/alacritty/vtebench) at the specific commit we used in our comparison: `93bcc32b6e0f7560e9b1a5a8b0998c04fbf9b50d`. Results in milliseconds.

### Average time for each of the benchmark tests

|  | Warp avg (ms) | Terminal.app avg (ms) | iTerm avg | Alacritty avg | WezTerm avg |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| dense\_cells | 43.88 | 24.91 | 144.84 | 7.25 | 28.15 |
| scrolling | 30.06 | 283.34 | 1257.57 | 31.75 | 687.77 |
| scrolling\_bottom\_region | 117.34 | 257.23 | 1294.25 | 29.1 | 672.67 |
| scrolling\_bottom\_small\_region | 114.52 | 227.75 | 1251 | 25.98 | 669.93 |
| scrolling\_fullscreen | 37.4 | 307.03 | 1565.17 | 37.36 | 1205 |
| scrolling\_top\_region | 120.63 | 209.29 | 2212.2 | 84.42 | 682.6 |
| scrolling\_top\_small\_region | 114.64 | 205.59 | 1216.33 | 21.91 | 663.44 |
| unicode | 66.47 | 34.45 | 93.01 | 16.78 | 1279.25 |

![VTEbench average results (logarithmic scale )](/_astro/vtebench_avg.DWyIP7Kx_1YLczf.webp?dpl=dpl_3er2F6La4cCzcMtgjHSyo9up2jMz)

### P90 of the results

|  | Warp p90 | Terminal.app p90 | iTerm p90 | Alacritty p90 | WezTerm p90 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| dense\_cells | 52 | 28 | 189 | 8 | 32 |
| scrolling | 32 | 266.76 | 1336 | 32 | 707 |
| scrolling\_bottom\_region | 170 | 243 | 1398 | 30 | 686 |
| scrolling\_bottom\_small\_region | 167 | 224 | 1331 | 30 | 679 |
| scrolling\_fullscreen | 38 | 327 | 1593 | 41 | 1208 |
| scrolling\_top\_region | 178 | 222 | 2243 | 85 | 686 |
| scrolling\_top\_small\_region | 167 | 222 | 1314 | 30 | 666 |
| unicode | 77 | 39 | 90 | 20 | 3883 |

![VTEbench p90 results (logarithmic scale )](/_astro/vtebench_p90.Dub4mk1f_2fkOAF.webp?dpl=dpl_3er2F6La4cCzcMtgjHSyo9up2jMz)

## Termbench

Benchmark code is available in the [Termbench repository](https://github.com/cmuratori/termbench) at the specific commit we used in our comparison: `82afbc69256b4e22de913f0f02f82e0480f3dac5`.

Below you’ll find results for small and regular test sizes. Note that Terminal.app only participated in the small test. Results in seconds.

### Small test sizes

|  | Warp small (s) | Terminal.app small (s) | iTerm small (s) | Alacritty small | WezTerm small |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ManyLine | 6.7854 | 2.6789 | 8.7057 | 1.2532 | 8.9436 |
| LongLine | 9.0033 | 1.6473 | 9.0849 | 0.8179 | 11.4587 |
| FGPerChar | 1.3716 | 453.9888 | 2.6625 | 0.2788 | 0.6487 |
| FGBGPerChar | 2.8403 | 908.894 | 4.5881 | 0.5931 | 0.7283 |
| overall result | 20.0006 | 1367.209 | 25.0413 | 2.943 | 21.7793 |

![Termbench small results (logarithmic scale )](/_astro/termbench_small.BU2jelB2_1vn9r.webp?dpl=dpl_3er2F6La4cCzcMtgjHSyo9up2jMz)

### Regular test size

|  | Warp regular (s) | iTerm regular (s) | Alacritty regular (s) | WezTerm regular |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ManyLine | 113.76 | 132.4975 | 19.8802 | 150.8175 |
| LongLine | 155.0937 | 126.7561 | 12.7859 | 207.3647 |
| FGPerChar | 21.8928 | 39.3352 | 4.2925 | 9.4265 |
| FGBGPerChar | 46.312 | 50.5369 | 8.418 | 13.5142 |
| overall result | 337.0585 | 349.1258 | 45.3767 | 381.1229 |

![Termbench results (logarithmic scale)](/_astro/termbench_regular.Bp79nbrM_HwDez.webp?dpl=dpl_3er2F6La4cCzcMtgjHSyo9up2jMz)