pytest-durations

What it is and what it does

pytest-durations is a pytest plugin that breaks down test execution time into separate measurements for fixtures, test setup, test calls, and teardown phases. Unlike pytest's built-in --durations flag, it isolates fixture durations from test function durations and accounts for fixtures with scope larger than "function" by subtracting their time from the test duration, giving you a clearer picture of what's actually slow in your test suite.

The plugin integrates directly into pytest and offers granular reporting options: you can filter which sections to display (fixture, call, setup, teardown), choose how to group results (by module, class, or function), select which statistics to show (total, num, min, med, max, and percentiles p90/p95/p99), and export results as JSON for CI integration. It works with pytest-xdist for distributed testing and handles time-traveling packages like freezegun.

Use it for:

• Identify slow fixtures that are blocking your test suite and prioritize optimization efforts.
• Compare test performance across modules or classes to find which parts of your codebase have the slowest tests.
• Export timing data as JSON to track test performance trends over time in CI/CD pipelines.
• Debug test setup and teardown overhead separately from the actual test logic execution time.
• Use percentile columns to understand the distribution of test durations rather than just min/max values.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

A pytest plugin that measures and reports fixture and test function execution times separately, with support for xdist and time-traveling packages.

Yes. This is a lightweight, actively maintained plugin with no security vulnerabilities, permissive licensing, and a single stable dependency. Install it if you need finer-grained visibility into test performance than pytest's built-in --durations provides, especially for large test suites where fixture overhead is significant.

Install

pytest-durations on PyPI

pip install pytest-durations

uv add pytest-durations

poetry add pytest-durations

Installing pytest-durations

Before you install

Low friction: pure Python wheel with only pytest as a runtime dependency. Actively maintained with a release on 2026-08-14 and 44 repository stars.

License in practice

MIT license (permissive) — you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart

pip install pytest-durations

pytest --pytest-durations=10

# Shows fixture and test durations separately in the report

Requires Python 3.10 or later (supports up to 3.14).

Verify before relying

• Whether the plugin's percentile columns (p90, p95, p99) are available in all output formats or only in specific configurations.
• Performance overhead of the plugin on very large test suites with thousands of tests.

Package facts

Evidence: pytest_durations-1.9.0-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

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