Every PQC pair, measured.
7 head-to-head comparisons across ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and SLH-DSA. Each opens a side-by-side detail view with latency, percentiles, and key sizes — measured daily on the same hardware.
Every algorithm, one metric at a time.
Pick the metric and operation you actually care about. The axis is yours to set — a log axis is offered by default only where a linear one would hide the small bars.
Key encapsulation mechanisms
3 ML-KEM pairs measured daily across NIST security levels.
ML-KEM across security levels
Same lattice scheme, different NIST categories. The cost of higher security.
Digital signatures
4 signature pairs across ML-DSA and SLH-DSA — lattice-based and hash-based schemes side by side.
ML-DSA across security levels
Same lattice scheme, different NIST categories. Higher security means bigger keys and slower signing.
SLH-DSA: fast vs small
The defining SLH-DSA tradeoff — fast signatures with larger signature sizes, or small signatures with much slower signing.
What turning it on costs inside a real handshake.
Amplification factor is server bytes returned per client byte sent — not published elsewhere for these suites.
Hybrid vs classical.
Real TLS and SSH handshake suites — hybrid post-quantum key exchange next to the classical baseline everyone already runs. Amplification factor (server bytes returned per byte the client sends) is a first-to-publish number here: not measured elsewhere for these suites.
Stateful signatures are not fully supported by the loaded liboqs: liboqs must be built with -DOQS_HAZARDOUS_EXPERIMENTAL_ENABLE_SIG_STFL_KEY_SIG_GEN=ON to use StatefulSignature for LMS_SHA256_H10_W8. Shown here rather than left silently absent — see /pqc-arena/protocols once measurements land.
Side by side.
Pick any two PQC algorithms and an operation. Numbers come from the latest daily run, same hardware, same iteration count.
Different families AND different NIST levels. Useful for raw performance intuition, but adjust mentally for the security delta.
ML-DSA-65 is 3.7k× faster than SLH-DSA-SHAKE-128s on keygen.
keygen mean / p95 / p99 (µs)
Full statistics
| Metric | ML-DSA-65 | SLH-DSA-SHAKE-128s |
|---|---|---|
| Mean | 30.3 µs | 111.54 ms |
| Median | 28.7 µs | 111.48 ms |
| p95 | 39.8 µs | 112.20 ms |
| p99 | 49.0 µs | 113.34 ms |
| Stdev | 5.0 µs | 524.2 µs |
| Ops / sec | 33,000 | 9.0 |
| Public key | 1.91 KB | 32 B |
| Signature | 3.23 KB | 7.67 KB |