Benchmarks

Use this catalog to choose a workload, understand its data and query shape, and estimate the resources a run needs. BenchBox includes standards-based, academic, industry, real-world, primitive, and experimental workloads.

List the benchmark names available in your installed version with:

uv run -- benchbox benchmarks list

Start with TPC-H for a general analytical comparison. Choose a focused primitive workload when you need to isolate one operation, or a domain-specific benchmark when its schema and query patterns match your system.

Benchmark support status is sourced from benchbox.core.benchmark_registry, not from hand-maintained docs. Current status counts are documented and checked in the public contract map. The auditable per-benchmark rationale and promotion criteria live in Benchmark Support Status Criteria. support_status is separate from public discovery visibility and from DataFrame capability.

Roadmap & Research

Development Roadmap

Planned platform and benchmark additions, including DataFrame support expansion and upcoming workloads.

TPC Standards

Official industry standards for comparing databases

TPC-H

TPC-H Decision Support Benchmark

CLI name: tpch
Purpose: Standard decision support and analytical query performance
Queries: 22 business-oriented analytical queries
Schema: 8 tables modeling a wholesale supplier database
Scale: 0.001 to 1000+ scale factors supported
Use Cases: General analytical performance, database comparison, regression testing

TPC-DS

TPC-DS Decision Support Benchmark

CLI name: tpcds
Purpose: Complex analytical workloads with advanced SQL features
Queries: 99 complex analytical queries with CTEs, window functions
Schema: 24 tables modeling a retail data warehouse
Scale: 0.001 to 100+ scale factors supported
Use Cases: Advanced-level analytics, complex query optimization, modern SQL feature testing

TPC-DI

TPC-DI Data Integration Benchmark

CLI name: tpcdi
Purpose: Data integration and ETL performance testing
Queries: Data transformation and loading operations
Schema: Dimensional data warehouse with fact and dimension tables
Scale: Variable based on data volume requirements
Use Cases: ETL performance, data pipeline testing, integration workflows

Data Modeling Variants

Alternative schema designs derived from TPC standards

TPC-H Data Vault

TPC-H Data Vault Benchmark

CLI name: datavault
Purpose: TPC-H adapted for Data Vault 2.0 modeling pattern performance testing
Queries: 22 TPC-H queries adapted for Hub-Link-Satellite joins
Schema: 21 tables (7 Hubs, 6 Links, 8 Satellites) from TPC-H source
Scale: Same as TPC-H (0.01 to 100+)
Use Cases: Data Vault architecture evaluation, hub-link-satellite join performance, enterprise DWH patterns

Academic Benchmarks

Research benchmarks from academia

Star Schema Benchmark (SSB)

Star Schema Benchmark

CLI name: ssb
Purpose: Star schema analytical query performance
Queries: 13 queries across 4 query flights
Schema: Classic star schema with fact and dimension tables
Scale: 1 to 1000+ scale factors supported
Use Cases: OLAP performance, dimensional modeling validation, columnar database testing

AMPLab

AMPLab Big Data Benchmark

CLI name: amplab
Purpose: Big data processing and analytics performance
Queries: 8 web analytics and user behavior queries
Schema: Web analytics data model
Scale: Large-scale data processing focused
Use Cases: Big data performance, distributed computing, web analytics

Join Order Benchmark

Join Order Optimization Benchmark

CLI name: joinorder
Purpose: Query optimizer join order evaluation
Queries: 113 complex multi-table join queries
Schema: 21 tables modeling IMDB movie database
Scale: Fixed at --scale 1 using canonical IMDb 2013 JOB data
Use Cases: Query optimizer testing, join algorithm evaluation, cardinality estimation

Industry Benchmarks

Real-world benchmarks from practitioners

ClickBench

ClickHouse Analytical Benchmark

CLI name: clickbench
Purpose: High-performance analytical query testing
Queries: 43 analytical queries from real web analytics
Schema: Web analytics event data
Scale: High-volume analytical workloads
Use Cases: Analytical database performance, real-time analytics, columnar storage

H2ODB

H2O Database Benchmark

CLI name: h2odb
Purpose: Data science and machine learning workloads
Queries: 10 aggregation and groupby operations
Schema: Data science oriented tables
Scale: Memory and computation intensive
Use Cases: Data science performance, in-memory analytics, aggregation optimization

CoffeeShop

CoffeeShop Point-of-Sale Benchmark

CLI name: coffeeshop
Purpose: Real-world transactional and analytical workloads
Queries: 11 point-of-sale and reporting queries
Schema: Retail transaction data model
Scale: Configurable based on business volume
Use Cases: Hybrid workload testing, real-world performance validation

Real-World Data

Benchmarks built on public real-world datasets

NYC Taxi

NYC Taxi OLAP Benchmark

CLI name: nyctaxi
Purpose: Real-world transportation data analytics
Queries: 25 OLAP queries across 9 categories
Schema: NYC TLC trip records with taxi zones dimension
Scale: From ~96K trips (SF=0.01) to ~96M trips (SF=10 ceiling)
Use Cases: Geospatial analytics, temporal aggregation, multi-dimensional OLAP

Flight Data

US Aviation On-Time Performance Benchmark

CLI name: flightdata
Purpose: Real-world aviation analytics - delays, routes, carriers, seasonality
Queries: 20 OLAP queries across 5 categories (ontime, delay, routes, temporal, carriers)
Schema: BTS On-Time Performance records
Scale: From 1-month sample (SF=0.01, ~10MB) to full corpus (SF≥10, ~10GB+)
Use Cases: Temporal analytics, categorical aggregation, carrier comparisons

Time-Series Benchmarks

Workloads built for time-series databases and columnar monitoring engines

TSBS DevOps

Time Series Benchmark Suite for DevOps

CLI name: tsbs_devops
Purpose: Infrastructure monitoring and observability workloads
Queries: 18 DevOps monitoring queries across 10 categories
Schema: CPU, memory, disk, network metrics with host tags
Scale: From 10 hosts to thousands, configurable duration
Use Cases: Time-series database evaluation, monitoring dashboards, alerting queries

BenchBox Primitives

Fundamental database operation testing

Read Primitives

Database Read Primitives Benchmark

CLI name: read_primitives
Purpose: Individual database operation testing
Queries: 157 primitive operation queries across 31 categories
Schema: TPC-H schema for familiar data patterns
Scale: Lightweight focused testing
Use Cases: Unit testing, regression detection, optimizer sniff tests, development validation

Write Primitives

Database Write Operations Benchmark (v2)

CLI name: write_primitives
Purpose: Comprehensive non-transactional write operation testing
Queries: 12 write operations across 7 categories (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, BULK_LOAD, MERGE, DDL, TRANSACTION)
Schema: TPC-H schema with 16 category-based staging tables
Scale: Configurable via scale factors
Platform Support: Broad (ClickHouse, BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, DuckDB, SQLite)
Use Cases: Write performance testing, MERGE/UPSERT optimization, CDC workloads, ETL validation

Transaction Primitives

Database Transaction Testing Benchmark

CLI name: transaction_primitives
Purpose: ACID transaction guarantees and isolation level testing
Queries: 12 transaction operations (COMMIT, ROLLBACK, SAVEPOINT, isolation levels)
Schema: TPC-H schema with transaction staging tables
Scale: Configurable via scale factors
Platform Support: Designed for ACID databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server - adapters planned; currently limited support via DuckDB/SQLite)
Use Cases: Transaction isolation testing, ACID compliance validation, concurrency testing

Metadata Primitives

Database Catalog Introspection Benchmark

CLI name: metadata_primitives
Purpose: Catalog introspection performance via INFORMATION_SCHEMA, SHOW, DESCRIBE, PRAGMA
Queries: 62 catalog queries across 10 categories
Schema: Database catalog (no data generation required)
Scale: Configurable via wide tables and view hierarchies
Use Cases: Data catalog integration, BI tool responsiveness, IDE autocomplete, data governance

AI Primitives

SQL-Based AI Functions Benchmark

CLI name: ai_primitives
Purpose: Evaluate built-in AI functions in cloud databases
Queries: 16 queries across 4 categories (generative, nlp, transform, embedding)
Schema: TPC-H (uses customer/supplier comments as realistic text)
Platform Support: Snowflake Cortex, BigQuery ML, Databricks AI
Cost Control: Built-in budget enforcement
Use Cases: Platform comparison for AI-native analytics, cost modeling
Registry category: Primitives (grouped with the other *_primitives benchmarks)

AI & ML Benchmarks

Vector similarity and other AI-shaped analytical workloads

Vector Search

Vector Similarity Search Benchmark

CLI name: vector_search
Purpose: Exact and approximate similarity search over embedding vectors
Queries: 6 queries - exact kNN (cosine + L2), filtered kNN, ground truth, ANN, multi-category
Schema: Synthetic embeddings, 128-dim default (configurable)
Platform Support: DuckDB (primary), pgvector, ClickHouse, Snowflake, StarRocks, Doris
Use Cases: Vector database evaluation, ANN recall testing, embedding store comparison

BenchBox Experimental

Experimental benchmarks for specialized testing

See also TPC-H Data Vault under Data Modeling Variants above - shipped in the experimental toctree but documented alongside the other TPC-H schema variants.

TPC-DS-OBT

TPC-DS One Big Table Benchmark

CLI name: tpcds_obt
Purpose: Denormalized wide-table analytical workloads
Queries: 17 TPC-DS queries adapted for single-table schema
Schema: Single denormalized “One Big Table” with all TPC-DS attributes
Scale: Same as TPC-DS (1.0 to 100+)
Use Cases: Wide-table analytics, columnar database testing, denormalization trade-off analysis

TPC-Havoc

TPC-H Syntax Variants Benchmark

CLI name: tpchavoc
Purpose: Query optimizer stress testing through syntax variations
Queries: 220 variants (22 TPC-H queries × 10 syntax variants each)
Schema: TPC-H schema with identical data
Scale: Same as TPC-H but focused on optimization differences
Use Cases: Optimizer robustness testing, syntax transformation analysis, performance variance evaluation

TPC-H Skew

TPC-H Data Skew Benchmark

CLI name: tpch_skew
Purpose: Test optimizer behavior on non-uniform data distributions
Queries: 22 TPC-H queries with configurable skew parameters
Schema: TPC-H schema with Zipfian, normal, or exponential data distributions
Scale: Same as TPC-H (0.01 to 10+)
Use Cases: Skew handling, cardinality estimation testing, join strategy evaluation under data imbalance

Benchmark Selection Guide

By Use Case

General Performance Testing

Primary: TPC-H - Industry standard, widely comparable
Secondary: SSB - Simpler star schema alternative
Advanced: TPC-DS - Complex modern analytical workloads
Wide Tables: TPC-DS-OBT - Denormalized single-table analytics
Enterprise DWH: Data Vault - Hub-Link-Satellite modeling patterns

Query Optimizer Testing

Join Optimization: Join Order Benchmark
General Optimization: Read Primitives optimizer tests
Syntax Robustness: TPC-Havoc
Skew Handling: TPC-H Skew - Non-uniform data distributions

Specific Operation Testing

Read Operations: Read Primitives
Write Operations: Write Primitives
Transaction Operations: Transaction Primitives
Analytical Operations: ClickBench

Development and CI/CD

Unit Testing: Read Primitives with micro scale factors
Regression Testing: TPC-H with small scale factors
Feature Validation: Category-specific Read Primitives queries

Research and Analysis

Optimizer Research: Join Order Benchmark
Performance Analysis: TPC-DS complex queries
Syntax Impact: TPC-Havoc variants

By Database Type

OLTP Databases

TPC-H queries 1, 6, 12 (simple aggregations)
Read Primitives focused read operations
Write Primitives for UPSERT and write workloads
Transaction Primitives for ACID compliance testing

OLAP/Analytical Databases

TPC-DS for complex analytics
ClickBench for high-performance analytics
SSB for dimensional modeling

Distributed/Big Data Systems

AMPLab for big data workloads
TPC-DS for complex distributed queries
H2ODB for data science workloads

In-Memory Databases

H2ODB for memory-intensive operations
Read Primitives for focused operation testing
TPC-H with larger scale factors

By Performance Characteristics

CPU-Intensive Workloads

TPC-DS complex queries (Q67, Q78, Q98)
Join Order Benchmark multi-table joins
Read Primitives aggregation category

I/O-Intensive Workloads

TPC-H with large scale factors
ClickBench analytical scans
AMPLab big data operations

Memory-Intensive Workloads

H2ODB groupby operations
TPC-DS with window functions
Canonical Join Order Benchmark at fixed --scale 1

Common Patterns

Quick Performance Test

Run a representative subset of TPC-H queries for standard analytical performance, and use Read Primitives for focused operation testing:

from benchbox import TPCH, ReadPrimitives

tpch = TPCH(scale_factor=0.1)
key_queries = [1, 3, 6, 12]

read_primitives = ReadPrimitives(scale_factor=0.01)
perf_critical = read_primitives.get_queries_by_category("aggregation")

Comprehensive Evaluation

from benchbox import TPCH, TPCDS, JoinOrder

benchmarks = {
    "tpch": TPCH(scale_factor=1.0),
    "tpcds": TPCDS(scale_factor=1.0),
    "joinorder": JoinOrder(scale_factor=1.0),
}

for name, benchmark in benchmarks.items():
    queries = benchmark.get_queries()
    print(f"{name}: {len(queries)} queries")

Regression Testing

Use a small scale factor for fast execution, and allow 10% variance against the baseline:

from benchbox import ReadPrimitives

read_primitives = ReadPrimitives(scale_factor=0.01)
regression_queries = [
    "aggregation_distinct",
    "broadcast_join_two_tables",
    "filter_selective",
    "limit",
]

for query_id in regression_queries:
    query_sql = read_primitives.get_query(query_id)
    print(f"{query_id}: {len(query_sql)} characters")

Resource Characteristics

Query Complexity by Benchmark

Benchmark	Simple Queries	Complex Queries	Total Queries
TPC-H	Q1, Q6, Q14	Q2, Q9, Q21	22
TPC-DS	Q1, Q6, Q11	Q14, Q67, Q78	99
SSB	Q1.1-Q1.3	Q4.1-Q4.3	13
Join Order	2-3 table joins	6+ table joins	113
Primitives	Single-table scans	Complex aggregations	157
ClickBench	Simple scans	Multi-column analytics	43

Note: Execution times vary significantly based on platform, hardware, and configuration. Run benchmarks to establish baselines for your environment.

Memory Requirements (Scale Factor 1.0)

Benchmark	Data Size	Working Memory	Peak Memory
TPC-H	~1 GB	~2 GB	~4 GB
TPC-DS	~3 GB	~6 GB	~12 GB
SSB	~600 MB	~1 GB	~2 GB
Join Order	74M rows	engine-specific	engine-specific
Primitives	~1 GB	~2 GB	~4 GB

Integration Examples

Each benchmark documentation includes:

Setup instructions for popular databases
Performance tuning recommendations
Common pitfalls and troubleshooting
Integration patterns for different use cases
Expected results and validation guidelines

Getting Help

Benchmark-Specific Issues

Check individual benchmark documentation for known issues
Review database-specific integration examples
Validate scale factor and configuration settings

General Support

Usage Guide for general BenchBox usage
API Reference for detailed API documentation
GitHub Issues for bug reports
GitHub Discussions for questions

Choose the right benchmark for your specific testing needs. For general performance evaluation, start with TPC-H. For focused testing, use Primitives. For optimizer research, explore Join Order Benchmark.