IT for operating businesses

Using the ab Command

23 January 2026

Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool. More information: <https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/programs/ab.html>.

Execute 100 HTTP GET requests to a given URL:

ab -n 100 *url*

Execute 100 HTTP GET requests, in concurrent batches of 10, to a URL:

ab -n 100 -c 10 *url*

Execute 100 HTTP POST requests to a URL, using a JSON payload from a file:

ab -n 100 -T *application/json* -p *path/to/file.json* *url*

Use HTTP [k]eep-Alive, i.e. perform multiple requests within one HTTP session:

ab -k *url*

Set the maximum number of seconds ([t]imeout) to spend for benchmarking (30 by default):

ab -t *60* *url*

Write the results to a CSV file:

ab -e *path/to/file.csv*

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