Kotlin VS Zig 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

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
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

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
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

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

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

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