Benchmarks

Micro-benchmarks comparing ilo’s execution engines against compiled, JIT, and interpreted languages. Each benchmark runs 10000 iterations and reports the median per-call time in nanoseconds.

Note

These are micro-benchmarks — they measure raw execution speed, not end-to-end agent workflow performance. ilo’s primary optimisation target is total token cost (generation + errors + retries), not runtime speed.

Execution engines

ilo has four execution backends:

Backend	Flag	Notes
ilo AOT	ilo compile	Cranelift ahead-of-time compiler → standalone native binary
ilo JIT	ilo (default)	Cranelift-based just-in-time compiler
ilo VM	ilo --run-vm	Register-based bytecode virtual machine
Interpreter	ilo --run-tree	Tree-walking interpreter (simplest, slowest)

Languages tested

Category	Languages
Compiled (AOT)	Rust (rustc -O), Go, C# (.NET), Kotlin (JVM)
JIT	LuaJIT, Node.js (V8), TypeScript (tsx/V8), PyPy 3
ilo	ilo JIT, ilo VM, ilo Interpreter
Interpreted	Lua, Ruby, PHP, Python 3 (CPython)

Results

numeric

sum 1..1000 (pure arithmetic loop)

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
Rust (native)	329ns	fastest
LuaJIT	442ns	1.3x
Node/V8	451ns	1.4x
TypeScript	456ns	1.4x
Kotlin (JVM)	528ns	1.6x
Go	665ns	2.0x
PyPy 3	1.5us	4.5x
Lua	4.2us	12.7x
ilo JIT	4.2us	12.9x
ilo AOT	5.3us	16.0x
C# (.NET)	5.9us	18.0x
PHP	6.7us	20.2x
ilo VM	14.7us	44.7x
Ruby	20.6us	62.7x
Python 3	29.5us	89.6x
ilo Interpreter	94.3us	286.5x

string

build 100-char string via concat

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
Rust (native)	138ns	fastest
Node/V8	420ns	3.0x
TypeScript	433ns	3.1x
PyPy 3	770ns	5.6x
LuaJIT	798ns	5.8x
PHP	1.3us	9.3x
Python 3	2.1us	15.5x
C# (.NET)	2.2us	15.9x
Kotlin (JVM)	2.2us	16.1x
Go	3.4us	24.3x
ilo JIT	3.5us	25.0x
ilo VM	5.0us	36.1x
Ruby	5.1us	36.7x
Lua	5.2us	37.7x
ilo AOT	7.5us	54.2x
ilo Interpreter	16.4us	118.6x

record

create 100 structs, sum fields

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
Go	124ns	fastest
LuaJIT	132ns	1.1x
Kotlin (JVM)	281ns	2.3x
TypeScript	288ns	2.3x
Node/V8	341ns	2.8x
PyPy 3	446ns	3.6x
C# (.NET)	449ns	3.6x
ilo JIT	743ns	6.0x
ilo AOT	814ns	6.6x
ilo VM	3.5us	28.5x
PHP	4.1us	33.0x
Lua	7.6us	61.1x
Ruby	8.6us	69.4x
Python 3	8.6us	69.7x
ilo Interpreter	57.2us	461.1x

mixed

build 100 records, JSON-serialise

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
TypeScript	5.3us	fastest
Node/V8	5.3us	1.0x
Go	6.2us	1.2x
Kotlin (JVM)	7.8us	1.5x
PHP	8.6us	1.6x
LuaJIT	8.6us	1.6x
Rust (native)	9.7us	1.8x
Ruby	18.6us	3.5x
PyPy 3	21.0us	4.0x
Python 3	27.9us	5.3x
C# (.NET)	30.8us	5.8x
ilo VM	41.8us	7.9x
ilo AOT	46.4us	8.8x
ilo JIT	49.0us	9.2x
Lua	50.2us	9.5x
ilo Interpreter	1.4ms	255.2x

guards

classify 1000 values via guard chains

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
Go	394ns	fastest
Node/V8	1.0us	2.6x
TypeScript	1.0us	2.6x
Kotlin (JVM)	1.1us	2.7x
Rust (native)	1.5us	3.8x
LuaJIT	1.9us	4.8x
PyPy 3	4.4us	11.2x
C# (.NET)	6.8us	17.3x
ilo JIT	6.8us	17.4x
ilo AOT	8.7us	22.1x
PHP	26.7us	67.7x
Lua	27.9us	70.9x
Ruby	38.9us	98.6x
ilo VM	53.3us	135.3x
Python 3	65.6us	166.4x
ilo Interpreter	984.2us	2497.9x

recurse

fibonacci(10) — recursive calls

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
Rust (native)	137ns	fastest
Go	176ns	1.3x
Kotlin (JVM)	191ns	1.4x
LuaJIT	235ns	1.7x
C# (.NET)	362ns	2.6x
TypeScript	387ns	2.8x
Node/V8	421ns	3.1x
ilo JIT	543ns	4.0x
ilo AOT	1.0us	7.6x
PyPy 3	1.2us	9.1x
Lua	2.8us	20.1x
Ruby	3.1us	23.0x
PHP	5.0us	36.5x
Python 3	6.0us	43.9x
ilo VM	6.9us	50.5x
ilo Interpreter	158.0us	1153.4x

foreach

build list of 100, sum via foreach

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
Rust (native)	62ns	fastest
Go	330ns	5.3x
TypeScript	473ns	7.6x
PyPy 3	575ns	9.3x
Node/V8	623ns	10.0x
PHP	1.0us	16.3x
Kotlin (JVM)	1.2us	19.0x
C# (.NET)	1.3us	21.2x
LuaJIT	1.4us	21.9x
Python 3	2.1us	33.2x
Ruby	3.1us	49.5x
Lua	3.8us	61.6x
ilo JIT	11.2us	181.3x
ilo AOT	13.2us	212.9x
ilo VM	14.7us	236.7x
ilo Interpreter	78.0us	1257.9x

while

sum 0..99 via while loop

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
Rust (native)	1ns	fastest
TypeScript	73ns	73.0x
Node/V8	81ns	81.0x
Go	111ns	111.0x
LuaJIT	119ns	119.0x
Kotlin (JVM)	192ns	192.0x
PyPy 3	274ns	274.0x
ilo JIT	423ns	423.0x
C# (.NET)	557ns	557.0x
PHP	707ns	707.0x
ilo AOT	828ns	828.0x
Lua	982ns	982.0x
ilo VM	1.5us	1496.0x
Ruby	2.3us	2341.0x
Python 3	2.6us	2614.0x
ilo Interpreter	10.3us	10329.0x

pipe

chain 4 function calls × 100 (call overhead)

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
Go	45ns	fastest
LuaJIT	118ns	2.6x
TypeScript	165ns	3.7x
Node/V8	179ns	4.0x
Kotlin (JVM)	211ns	4.7x
PyPy 3	464ns	10.3x
Rust (native)	485ns	10.8x
ilo JIT	558ns	12.4x
ilo AOT	781ns	17.4x
C# (.NET)	798ns	17.7x
Lua	4.2us	93.2x
Ruby	6.2us	138.1x
PHP	6.5us	144.5x
ilo VM	6.7us	149.8x
Python 3	10.2us	227.8x
ilo Interpreter	147.5us	3278.1x

file

read JSON file, parse 20 records, sum scores

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
Rust (native)	10.7us	fastest
Node/V8	12.0us	1.1x
TypeScript	12.7us	1.2x
LuaJIT	14.2us	1.3x
PHP	14.6us	1.4x
Lua	16.2us	1.5x
ilo JIT	16.3us	1.5x
ilo VM	16.6us	1.6x
ilo AOT	17.7us	1.7x
Kotlin (JVM)	17.7us	1.7x
Ruby	17.9us	1.7x
Python 3	19.4us	1.8x
Go	20.5us	1.9x
C# (.NET)	22.0us	2.1x
PyPy 3	23.1us	2.2x
ilo Interpreter	31.7us	3.0x

api

HTTP GET JSON, parse 20 records, sum scores

Language	ns/call	vs fastest
PyPy 3	762ns	fastest
Python 3	2.2us	2.9x
LuaJIT	46.1us	60.5x
Lua	54.7us	71.8x
Rust (native)	161.2us	211.6x
ilo AOT	167.0us	219.2x
PHP	186.4us	244.6x
Kotlin (JVM)	186.4us	244.6x
Go	192.7us	252.9x
C# (.NET)	229.6us	301.3x
Node/V8	275.6us	361.7x
TypeScript	282.8us	371.1x
Ruby	284.4us	373.2x
ilo VM	942.3us	1236.6x
ilo JIT	3.3ms	4325.0x
ilo Interpreter	3.3ms	4366.4x

Methodology

• All benchmarks run on the same machine (Darwin arm64) in a single session
• Each benchmark warms up before timing begins
• Compiled languages use optimised builds (-O2 / -O)
• V8 and LuaJIT benefit from JIT warmup during the iteration loop
• Results are from 2026-03-13