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APIsBenchmarksv4.17.1

password session benchmark of zitadel v4.17.1

Benchmark results of the v4.17.1 release of Zitadel.

Performance test results

MetricValue
Baselinenone
PurposeTest current performance
Test start2026-08-27 20:02:39 UTC
Test end2026-08-27 20:32:49 UTC
Test duration30min
Executed testpassword_session
k6 versionv2.1.0
VUs600
Client locationUS1
ZITADEL locationUS1
ZITADEL container specificationvCPU: 6
Memory: 6 Gi
Container min scale: 7
Container max scale: 7
ZITADEL Versionv4.17.1
ZITADEL SettingsEventstore autovacuum (new in v4.17): Enabled: true
VacuumThreshold: 1000000
AnalyzeThreshold: 1000000
Tuned for the ~4,000 events/s expected during the benchmark, per the tuning guide.
ZITADEL feature flagsEnabled: loginDefaultOrg (instance), oidcTokenExchange (system), enableBackChannelLogout (system), consoleUseV2UserApi (instance)
improvedPerformance (instance): IMPROVED_PERFORMANCE_PROJECT_GRANT, IMPROVED_PERFORMANCE_PROJECT, IMPROVED_PERFORMANCE_USER_GRANT, IMPROVED_PERFORMANCE_ORG_DOMAIN_VERIFIED
Disabled: loginV2 (explicitly false at instance), userSchema, debugOidcParentError, oidcSingleV1SessionTermination, permissionCheckV2
Captured from the instance before the run (sequence 7, set 2026-08-27 13:35:31 UTC); the same capture covers manipulate_user at 13:41 and the rest of the sweep from 14:56, so all eleven targets ran the same configuration.
This restores like-for-like comparison with the v4 pages, which ran five improvedPerformance options. The fifth, IMPROVED_PERFORMANCE_ORG_BY_ID, is reserved in the proto and no longer exists.
Databasetype: psql
version: v17.4
Database locationUS1
Database specificationvCPU: 8
memory: 32Gib
ZITADEL metrics during testCPU: p50 50%, p99 69% (peak 75%)
Memory: p50 7%, peak 16%
Instances: 7 (constant), no container startups recorded
Server-side: 140 req/s, latency p50 2.6s / p95 10.7s / p99 11.5s
Observed errors1 of 253,280 requests failed (0.00%): 1x connection reset. 1 iteration aborted on a null response body. 1 of 252,683 checks failed (0.00%): set Session status ok (1 failed)
Top 3 most expensive database queries1: Projection handler advisory lock, one per projection per instance — lock wait, not query work (18,303 s)
2: Eventstore read barrier: advisory lock + unlock on events2lock wait (6,904 s)
3: Query events by instance_id, aggregate_types, event_types, position (paged) (3,794 s)
Ranked by total accumulated execution time summed across concurrent sessions (Cloud SQL Query Insights) — not CPU time; it can exceed the wall-clock window.
Database metrics during testCPU: 51% median, 52% peak
Memory: 40%
Connections: 46
Transactions: 2,029/s
IOPS: read 3, write 597
k6 Iterations per second68
k6 outputoutput
flowchart outcomePotential issues. Not resource-bound: database CPU 51%, ZITADEL CPU 50%, yet 86% of the top-5 query time is advisory lock wait — predominantly the projection handler lock, which serialises this workload. Additional vCPU will not help. Logged as an issue rather than blocking further scale testing.

Endpoint latencies

k6 output

 TOTAL RESULTS

    checks_total.......: 252683 136.744628/s
    checks_succeeded...: 99.99% 252682 out of 252683
    checks_failed......: 0.00%  1 out of 252683

 user defined
 authorize status ok
 login name status ok
 login shows password page
 password status ok
 password callback
 code set
 token status ok
 access token created
 id token created
 info created
 org created
 create user is status ok
 set email otp status ok
 add Session status ok
 set Session status ok
  99% 125734 / 1
 org removed

    CUSTOM
    login_ui_enter_login_name_duration...: min=163.44ms avg=163.44ms max=163.44ms p(50)=163.44ms p(95)=163.44ms p(99)=163.44ms
    login_ui_enter_password_duration.....: min=12.83ms  avg=12.83ms  max=12.83ms  p(50)=12.83ms  p(95)=12.83ms  p(99)=12.83ms
    login_ui_init_login_duration.........: min=55.61ms  avg=55.61ms  max=55.61ms  p(50)=55.61ms  p(95)=55.61ms  p(99)=55.61ms
    login_ui_token_duration..............: min=97.03ms  avg=97.03ms  max=97.03ms  p(50)=97.03ms  p(95)=97.03ms  p(99)=97.03ms
    org_create_org_duration..............: min=56.23ms  avg=56.23ms  max=56.23ms  p(50)=56.23ms  p(95)=56.23ms  p(99)=56.23ms
    password_session_duration............: min=361ms    avg=8.61s    max=36.61s   p(50)=5.67s    p(95)=22.32s   p(99)=25.76s
    session_add_session_duration.........: min=48.7ms   avg=8.23s    max=33.11s   p(50)=5.29s    p(95)=21.94s   p(99)=25.31s
    session_set_session_duration.........: min=619.72µs avg=372.12ms max=8.7s     p(50)=339.05ms p(95)=530.41ms p(99)=711.46ms
    set_human_email_otp_duration.........: min=24.46ms  avg=158.74ms max=552.96ms p(50)=118.89ms p(95)=445.68ms p(99)=528.23ms
    user_create_human_duration...........: min=350.17ms avg=3.56s    max=7.21s    p(50)=3.7s     p(95)=6.72s    p(99)=6.95s

    HTTP
    http_req_duration....................: min=619.72µs avg=4.28s    max=33.11s   p(50)=408.63ms p(95)=20s      p(99)=24.05s
      { expected_response:true }.........: min=12.83ms  avg=4.28s    max=33.11s   p(50)=408.64ms p(95)=20s      p(99)=24.05s
    http_req_failed......................: 0.00%  1 out of 253280
    http_reqs............................: 253280 137.067706/s

    EXECUTION
    iteration_duration...................: min=361.04ms avg=8.61s    max=36.61s   p(50)=5.67s    p(95)=22.32s   p(99)=25.76s
    iterations...........................: 125735 68.044094/s
    vus..................................: 0      min=0           max=600
    vus_max..............................: 600    min=600         max=600

    NETWORK
    data_received........................: 192 MB 104 kB/s
    data_sent............................: 86 MB  47 kB/s

running (30m47.8s), 000/600 VUs, 125735 complete and 0 interrupted iterations
default [ 100% ] 600 VUs  30m0s

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