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Results output

As k6 generates load for your test, it also makes metrics that measure the performance of the system. Broadly, you can analyze metrics in two ways:

  • As summary statistics, in an end-of-test summary report.
  • In granular detail, with measurements for every data point across test (and timestamps)

You can customize almost every aspect of result output:

  • Create custom metrics
  • Configure new summary statistics and print them to any text format.
  • Stream the results to one or multiple services of your choice (for example, InfluxDB or Prometheus).

Metrics

Documentation: Using metrics

k6 comes with built-in metrics about the test load and the system response. Key metrics include:

  • http_req_duration, the end-to-end time of all requests (that is, the total latency)
  • http_req_failed, the total number of failed requests
  • iterations, the total number of iterations

End-of-test summary

Documentation: End-of-test summary

By default, k6 prints summarized results to stdout.

When you run a test, k6 outputs a plain-text logo, your test progress, and some test details. After the test finishes, k6 prints the full details and summary statistics of the test metrics.

k6 results - console/stdout output

The end-of-test summary shows aggregated statistical values for your result metrics, including:

  • Median and average values
  • Minimum and maximum values
  • p90, p95, and p99 values

You can configure the statistics to report with the --summary-trend-stats option. For example, this command displays only median, p95, and p99.9 values.

sh 
k6 run --iterations=100 --vus=10 \
--summary-trend-stats="med,p(95),p(99.9)" script.js

Custom reports with handleSummary()

For completely customized end-of-summary reports, k6 provides the handleSummary() function.

At the end of the test, k6 automatically creates an object with all aggregated statistics. The handleSummary() function can process this object into a custom report in any text format: JSON, HTML, XML, and whatever else.

Time series and external outputs

Documentation: Real-time metrics

The condensed end-of-test summary provides a top-level view of the test. For deeper analysis, you need to look at granular time-series data, which has metrics and timestamps for every point of the test.

You can access time-series metrics in two ways:

  • Write them to a JSON or CSV file.
  • Stream them to an external service.

In both cases, you can use the --out flag and declare your export format as the flag argument. If you want to send the metrics to multiple sources, you can use multiple flags with multiple arguments:

sh 
k6 run \
--out json=test.json \
--out influxdb=http://localhost:8086/k6

The available built-in outputs include: