k6: scenarios vs stages — what is the difference?

Question

Stages felt simple. Scenarios look powerful. When do I actually need scenarios?

Aiko Tanaka · Accepted Answer

Stages = simple ramp of a single VU pool. Scenarios = independent workloads with their own executor, VUs, and timing. Reach for scenarios when you need two behaviors running together (e.g. constant background traffic + a spike) or non-default executors like constant-arrival-rate.

export const options = {
  scenarios: {
    background: {
      executor: 'constant-vus', vus: 20, duration: '10m',
      exec: 'browse',
    },
    spike: {
      executor: 'ramping-arrival-rate', startRate: 10, timeUnit: '1s',
      preAllocatedVUs: 100,
      stages: [{ target: 500, duration: '1m' }, { target: 0, duration: '1m' }],
      exec: 'checkout',
    },
  },
};

k6: scenarios vs stages — what is the difference?

1 answer