x86_64 cross-check¶

The same benchmarks as the published ones, run on GitHub's x86_64 Linux runner, to check the results hold on an Intel or AMD CPU. That runner gets different CPUs from run to run, so the times here change between runs more than the ratios do; each part names the CPU it ran on.

In this run, on an AMD EPYC 9V74, the HS256 race finishes in the same order as on arm64: ryjwt about 27 times faster than PyJWT into a Struct, and twice as fast as jsonwebtoken's struct. The RS256 race doesn't: aws-lc (under ryjwt and jsonwebtoken) checks RSA signatures in half the time it takes on arm64, and ryjwt finishes first, about 15% ahead of jsonwebtoken and fast-jwt.

The races¶

Generated 2026-10-10 from bench/results-race/ by bench/race_svg.py, on AMD EPYC 9V74 80-Core Processor (x86_64), Linux. Each library decodes the same token 100,000 times, in 3 rounds, after 1,000 untimed decodes; the time is the mean over all three.

HS256, a 64-byte secret¶

RS256, a 3072-bit RSA PEM public key¶

Full matrix¶

Generated 2026-10-10 from bench/results-matrix/ by bench/compare.py, on AMD EPYC 9V74 80-Core Processor (x86_64), Linux. Run in Docker, one container per library, each limited to 1 CPU (pinned) and 500 MB with no swap; the JWKS server runs in a container of its own, outside that limit. Each case gets 1,000 untimed decodes, then 10,000 timed. Runtimes: Bun 1.3.14, CPython 3.14.8, Rust (release, LTO).

Each decode verifies the signature and checks exp and aud, as a real caller would, and each library's result is checked against the token's claims before timing. Times are µs per decode: the mean over 10,000 decodes of the same token, after 1,000 untimed (lower is better); (Nx) is the speed-up vs pyjwt 2.15.1. Fastest per row in bold; n/a where the library can't (see the end).

Key sources: an HMAC secret (HS256 only); a PEM public key, parsed once; a JWKS document of 3 keys, the signing key in the middle, picked by the token's kid; and that document fetched over HTTPS from a JWKS server (static-web-server, in its own container), timed in the steady state with the keys cached.

Headline: typical token, medium key¶

HMAC secret¶

PEM public key¶

JWKS document¶

JWKS URL, sync client¶

JWKS URL, async client¶

pyjwt 2.15.1 has no async JWKS client: speed-ups are vs its sync one.

First fetch from a JWKS URL¶

Milliseconds from a fresh client to its first decode: connect, TLS handshake, GET the JWKS, parse it, verify (typical token, RSA 3072). The median of 5 fresh clients, each on a new connection.

Not applicable¶

• jsonwebtoken 11.1.0 (aws-lc-rs) → struct, every key source, ES512: jsonwebtoken has no ES512 (P-521).
• jsonwebtoken 11.1.0 (aws-lc-rs) → struct, JWKS URL, sync client: jsonwebtoken doesn't fetch JWKS URLs (it takes your own HTTP client and cache).
• jsonwebtoken 11.1.0 (aws-lc-rs) → struct, JWKS URL, async client: jsonwebtoken doesn't fetch JWKS URLs (it takes your own HTTP client and cache).
• jsonwebtoken 11.1.0 (aws-lc-rs) → Value, every key source, ES512: jsonwebtoken has no ES512 (P-521).
• jsonwebtoken 11.1.0 (aws-lc-rs) → Value, JWKS URL, sync client: jsonwebtoken doesn't fetch JWKS URLs (it takes your own HTTP client and cache).
• jsonwebtoken 11.1.0 (aws-lc-rs) → Value, JWKS URL, async client: jsonwebtoken doesn't fetch JWKS URLs (it takes your own HTTP client and cache).
• fast-jwt 6.3.3, JWKS URL, sync client: fast-jwt's JWKS support (get-jwks) is async only.
• fast-jwt 6.3.3, JWKS URL, async client, EdDSA: get-jwks converts JWKs with jwk-to-pem, which doesn't support OKP (Ed25519) keys.
• jose 6.2.12, JWKS URL, sync client: jose's API is async only.
• joserfc 1.7.5, JWKS URL, sync client: joserfc has no JWKS URL client.
• joserfc 1.7.5, JWKS URL, async client: joserfc has no JWKS URL client.
• pyjwt 2.15.1, JWKS URL, async client: PyJWT has no async JWKS client.

Notes¶

• ryjwt 0.1.1 → dict (msgspec): SecretKey, PublicKey, PublicKey.from_jwks, JWKSClient.decode and .adecode.
• ryjwt 0.1.1 → dict (msgspec): JWKS URL: trusting the test CA through SSL_CERT_FILE.
• ryjwt 0.1.1 → Struct: SecretKey, PublicKey, PublicKey.from_jwks, JWKSClient.decode and .adecode.
• ryjwt 0.1.1 → Struct: JWKS URL: trusting the test CA through SSL_CERT_FILE.
• ryjwt 0.1.1 → dict (jiter): SecretKey, PublicKey, PublicKey.from_jwks, JWKSClient.decode and .adecode.
• ryjwt 0.1.1 → dict (jiter): JWKS URL: trusting the test CA through SSL_CERT_FILE.
• ryjwt 0.1.1 → BaseModel: SecretKey, PublicKey, PublicKey.from_jwks, JWKSClient.decode and .adecode.
• ryjwt 0.1.1 → BaseModel: JWKS URL: trusting the test CA through SSL_CERT_FILE.
• jsonwebtoken 11.1.0 (aws-lc-rs) → struct: JWKS: each key turned into a DecodingKey once, picked per token by kid (decode_header).
• jsonwebtoken 11.1.0 (aws-lc-rs) → struct: struct: claims decoded into typed structs with the fields ryjwt's msgspec lane decodes; other claims ignored.
• jsonwebtoken 11.1.0 (aws-lc-rs) → Value: JWKS: each key turned into a DecodingKey once, picked per token by kid (decode_header).
• fast-jwt 6.3.3: JWKS document: a verifier per key, made once, picked by the token's kid (read with createDecoder).
• fast-jwt 6.3.3: JWKS URL rows are fast-jwt + get-jwks 11.0.3 (fast-jwt's documented integration), so they time both: on every verify get-jwks converts the cached JWK to a PEM (with jwk-to-pem) and fast-jwt imports that PEM (createPublicKey), which is why they're slow.
• jose 6.2.12: HMAC secret imported once (crypto.subtle.importKey); importSPKI, createLocalJWKSet, createRemoteJWKSet.
• joserfc 1.7.5: jwt.decode(token, key, algorithms=[...]), then JWTClaimsRegistry(exp=..., aud=...).validate(token.claims), both essential.
• joserfc 1.7.5: keys imported once (OctKey, RSAKey, ECKey, OKPKey); JWKS document: a KeySet, which picks the key by kid.
• joserfc 1.7.5: EdDSA: joserfc warns on every decode (SecurityWarning: RFC 9864 deprecates EdDSA), as it does by default.
• pyjwt 2.15.1: PEM: the key loaded once, with load_pem_public_key.
• pyjwt 2.15.1: JWKS document: PyJWKSet, picking the key by get_unverified_header's kid.
• pyjwt 2.15.1: JWKS URL: PyJWKClient(cache_keys=True), its ssl_context trusting the test CA.