Installation

Requirements

NBenchmark targets net8.0, net9.0, and net10.0. You need the .NET 8 SDK or later.

Packages

NBenchmark ships as separate NuGet packages. Install only what you need.

Core package

The core package contains all measurement, statistics, and file-based reporters (JSON, Markdown, CSV). It has no NuGet dependencies - only the .NET BCL.

dotnet add package NBenchmark

Analyzers package (recommended)

The analyzers package adds compile-time diagnostics that catch common NBenchmark configuration errors - missing parameterless constructors, static benchmark methods, out-of-range settings, and more.

dotnet add package NBenchmark.Analyzers

The analyzers run automatically in the IDE and during dotnet build. See the Analyzers page for the full diagnostic reference.

Verify the installation

Create a new console project and add a quick sanity check:

dotnet new console -n MyBenchmarks
cd MyBenchmarks
dotnet add package NBenchmark
dotnet add package NBenchmark.Reporters.Console

Replace the contents of Program.cs:

using NBenchmark;
using NBenchmark.Reporters.Console;

var result = Benchmark.Run(() =>
{
    for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++) { }
});

result.Print();

Run it:

dotnet run

You should see output similar to:

  Benchmark: 1.20 µs median
    Mean: 1.24 µs, P95: 2.00 µs
    StdDev: 360 ns
    95% CI: 1.19 µs … 1.29 µs (±50 ns)

If you see numbers, everything is working.

Optional packages

Console package

The console package adds a rich terminal table with colour-coded results and an optional progress display. It depends on Spectre.Console.

dotnet add package NBenchmark.Reporters.Console

You only need NBenchmark.Reporters.Console if you want output in the terminal. File reporters (JSON, Markdown, CSV) work without it.

Dependency Injection package

The DI package lets [Benchmark] classes have constructor dependencies that are resolved from an IServiceProvider. Without it, benchmark classes must have a public parameterless constructor. See the Dependency Injection guide for full details.

dotnet add package NBenchmark.DependencyInjection

# Or, if you also want the concrete Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection
# implementation (ServiceCollection, BuildServiceProvider, etc.):
dotnet add package Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection

Test framework integration packages

The integration packages let you enforce performance thresholds as ordinary test assertions inside your existing test project. When a threshold is exceeded, the test fails.

dotnet add package NBenchmark.Integration.xUnit    # xUnit v2
dotnet add package NBenchmark.Integration.NUnit    # NUnit 3 / 4
dotnet add package NBenchmark.Integration.MSTest   # MSTest v2 / v3

Each package pulls in NBenchmark automatically, so you don't need a separate NBenchmark reference. See the Test integration guide for usage.

Global tool

The global tool lets you run benchmarks from the command line without creating a project. Install it once, then point it at any assembly with [Benchmark] methods.

dotnet tool install -g NBenchmark.Tool

After installation, run dotnet benchmark --help to verify. See the Global Tool guide for usage.

Next steps

Continue to the Quick Start guide to learn more about what you can do.