Soak Testing

Find issues that only appear over time

Run tests for extended periods to uncover problems that don't surface in short bursts — memory leaks, connection pool exhaustion, database connection limits, and gradual performance degradation.

What you get

  • Extended test durations (15-60 minutes)
  • Memory leak detection through metric trends
  • Connection pool exhaustion testing
  • Gradual performance degradation monitoring
  • Resource utilization tracking
  • Ideal for pre-release validation
soak-test.js
import http from 'k6/http';
import { check, sleep } from 'k6';

export const options = {
  stages: [
    { duration: '2m', target: 100 },   // Ramp up
    { duration: '30m', target: 100 },   // Sustained load
    { duration: '2m', target: 0 },      // Ramp down
  ],
  thresholds: {
    http_req_duration: ['p(95)<500'],  // Should stay consistent
    http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'],
  },
};

export default function () {
  http.get('https://myapp.com/api/data');
  sleep(2);
}

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a soak test run?

At minimum 15-30 minutes to detect most issues. For production validation, 1-4 hours is ideal. The Pro plan supports 15-minute tests; Business supports up to 60 minutes.

What issues does soak testing find?

Memory leaks, connection pool exhaustion, disk space fill-up, log rotation failures, cache eviction problems, and gradual response time degradation that only appears under sustained load.

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