Kotlin VS Lua 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
lua 1.lua 3544ms 45ms 172.9MB 3407ms 123ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
kotlin 1.kt 4076ms 141ms 134.1MB 4270ms 63ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 104.9MB 4947ms 40ms lua 5.4.7

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
kotlin 1.kt 232ms 38ms 17.6MB 243ms 3ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
lua 1.lua 290ms 5.5ms 15.7MB 267ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 814ms 5.2ms 16.9MB 797ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

coro-prime-sieve

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 2-m.kt 1827ms 163ms 237.7MB 6800ms 107ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1.kt 2186ms 6.6ms 220.6MB 2997ms 70ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 2-m.kt 4215ms 20ms 21.1MB 14100ms 557ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1.kt timeout 0.0ms 17.3MB 5513ms 27ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 2-m.kt 247ms 1.2ms 21.4MB 833ms 37ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1.kt 402ms 30ms 17.5MB 410ms 7ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1-m.kt 479ms 3.4ms 75.2MB 1080ms 47ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 2-m.kt 877ms 85ms 99.4MB 3073ms 70ms kotlin/jvm 21

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 1.4ms 0.2ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
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

http-server

Input: 3000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 2-m.kt 811ms 1405ms 357.9MB 10610ms 1887ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1.kt timeout 0.0ms 369.3MB 16190ms 2853ms kotlin/jvm 21

Input: 500

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1-m.kt 2031ms 194ms 211.9MB 5813ms 603ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 2-m.kt 2032ms 138ms 242.0MB 5440ms 617ms kotlin/jvm 21

json-serde

Input: sample 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1-m.kt 732ms 78ms 173.7MB 1963ms 80ms kotlin/jvm 21

Input: canada 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1-m.kt 1722ms 19ms 650.0MB 4150ms 150ms kotlin/jvm 21

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
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
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
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

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
kotlin 1.kt 1895ms 31ms 90.1MB 1967ms 43ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4950ms 33ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4933ms 57ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

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
kotlin 1.kt 267ms 13ms 25.5MB 270ms 13ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
lua 1.lua 1101ms 2.2ms 31.1MB 1073ms 17ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2187ms 8.5ms 28.6MB 2170ms 3ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
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
lua 4.lua 713ms 3.7ms 2.3MB 703ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.3MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1n.kt 39ms 1.6ms 3.6MB 30ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
lua 4.lua 74ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 67ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
kotlin 1-m.kt 119ms 1.7ms 49.5MB 170ms 13ms kotlin/jvm 21
lua 4.lua 1154ms 10ms 2.3MB 1143ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
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
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

regex-redux

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1.kt timeout 0.0ms 173.5MB 5407ms 40ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1n.kt timeout 0.0ms 226.8MB 5060ms 130ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1-m.kt 830ms 6.8ms 134.5MB 1273ms 37ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1n.kt 3212ms 16ms 51.0MB 3280ms 80ms kotlin/native 2.1.20

secp256k1

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1.kt 3105ms 26ms 233.3MB 3997ms 67ms kotlin/jvm 21

Input: 500

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1-m.kt 1013ms 41ms 232.1MB 1923ms 67ms kotlin/jvm 21