Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Kotlin benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Sun Jul 13 2025, full log can be found HERE

CONTRIBUTIONS are WELCOME!

[x86_64][4 cores] AMD EPYC 7763 64-Core Processor (Model 1)

* -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
kotlin 1.kt 502ms 0.9ms 575.9MB 597ms 100ms kotlin/jvm 21
zig 1.zig 1872ms 186ms 49.0MB 1840ms 17ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 1.kt 4076ms 141ms 134.1MB 4270ms 63ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1.kt 122ms 1.3ms 159.4MB 143ms 30ms kotlin/jvm 21
zig 1.zig 152ms 2.9ms 7.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 1.kt 232ms 38ms 17.6MB 243ms 3ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

edigits

Input: 250001

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2260ms 7.9ms 2.5MB 2237ms 10ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 382ms 1.1ms 1.9MB 367ms 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 637ms 8.5ms 1.4MB 2413ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 1765ms 1.9ms 1.0MB 1757ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 2719ms 3.6ms 1.0MB 2710ms 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 60ms 0.6ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 147ms 0.3ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 229ms 2.1ms 1.0MB 220ms 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 88ms 0.8ms 1.0MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 11ms 0.8ms 1.0MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 0.9ms 0.0ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 1.kt 2.2ms 0.1ms 3.0MB 0ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1.kt 62ms 0.6ms 47.7MB 74ms 18ms kotlin/jvm 21

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 318ms 0.8ms 67.1MB 840ms 23ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 499ms 2.8ms 28.0MB 477ms 13ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 65ms 1.8ms 54.3MB 133ms 33ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 66ms 2.2ms 15.4MB 50ms 3ms zig 0.14.1

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 33ms 1.2ms 2.8MB 27ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 2.kt 166ms 1.3ms 12.4MB 170ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1-m.kt 192ms 1.4ms 95.1MB 327ms 27ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 2-m.kt 201ms 1.3ms 101.4MB 460ms 30ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1.kt 355ms 2.2ms 12.5MB 360ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 95ms 1.5ms 2.8MB 87ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 2-m.kt 315ms 3.2ms 213.2MB 557ms 47ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1.kt 344ms 7.7ms 202.9MB 473ms 37ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 2.kt 477ms 5.7ms 12.4MB 507ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1.kt 1032ms 3.9ms 12.5MB 1060ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 16ms 1.1ms 1.3MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 2.kt 94ms 0.6ms 12.8MB 87ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1.kt 120ms 1.0ms 12.8MB 120ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1-m.kt 153ms 2.7ms 91.1MB 290ms 30ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 2-m.kt 167ms 13ms 96.2MB 343ms 33ms kotlin/jvm 21

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 247ms 0.5ms 4.1MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 12ms 0.2ms 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
kotlin 1.kt 387ms 9.9ms 680.6MB 443ms 93ms kotlin/jvm 21
zig 1.zig 866ms 9.9ms 41.0MB 833ms 17ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 1.kt 1895ms 31ms 90.1MB 1967ms 43ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1-m.kt 155ms 0.4ms 207.1MB 213ms 40ms kotlin/jvm 21
zig 1.zig 175ms 2.1ms 11.0MB 160ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 1.kt 267ms 13ms 25.5MB 270ms 13ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 198ms 1.1ms 1.0MB 190ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 280ms 0.5ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 315ms 0.8ms 1.1MB 303ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 1n.kt 354ms 5.0ms 3.6MB 343ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1.kt 443ms 0.3ms 49.2MB 487ms 13ms kotlin/jvm 21

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 22ms 0.3ms 1.0MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 34ms 0.6ms 1.1MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 1n.kt 39ms 1.6ms 3.6MB 30ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1-m.kt 119ms 1.7ms 49.5MB 170ms 13ms kotlin/jvm 21

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 270ms 5.1ms 40.2MB 257ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 330ms 3.2ms 6.0MB 320ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 52ms 2.0ms 10.9MB 40ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 80ms 1.1ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2450ms 12ms 2.2MB 2420ms 17ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 1.kt 3757ms 42ms 354.4MB 4560ms 113ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1n.kt timeout 0.0ms 26.6MB 3957ms 1507ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 2n.kt timeout 0.0ms 30.6MB 5110ms 133ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 569ms 4.0ms 1.8MB 560ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
kotlin 1-m.kt 990ms 32ms 353.0MB 1737ms 93ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1n.kt timeout 0.0ms 26.3MB 3987ms 1517ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 2n.kt timeout 0.0ms 30.9MB 5117ms 123ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 3686ms 3.7ms 1.4MB 3677ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 925ms 2.6ms 1.3MB 917ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 235ms 0.4ms 1.3MB 230ms 0ms zig 0.14.1