diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 15306d3..06b57e8 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -13,6 +13,11 @@ lazy-init = "0.3"
 [dev-dependencies]
 tempfile = "3.1.0"
 assert_approx_eq = "1.1.0"
+criterion = "0.3"
 
 [build-dependencies]
 cc = { version = "1.0", features = ["parallel" ]}
+
+[[bench]]
+name = "benchmarks"
+harness = false
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/benches/benchmarks.rs b/benches/benchmarks.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d83fbb2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benches/benchmarks.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+use std::rc::Rc;
+use tempfile::NamedTempFile;
+use xdrfile::*;
+use criterion::{black_box, criterion_group, criterion_main, Criterion};
+use std::time::Duration;
+
+/// generate a temporary test trajectory of given length
+fn gen_test_traj(num_atoms: usize, num_frames: usize) -> Result<NamedTempFile> {
+    let tempfile = NamedTempFile::new().expect("Could not create temporary file");
+    let tmp_path = tempfile.path().to_path_buf();
+    let mut f = XTCTrajectory::open_write(&tmp_path)?;
+
+    let mut frame = Frame {
+        num_atoms: num_atoms as u32,
+        step: 1,
+        time: 1.0,
+        box_vector: [[1.0, 2.0, 3.0], [2.0, 1.0, 3.0], [3.0, 2.0, 1.0]],
+        coords: vec![[1.0, 1.1, 1.2]; num_atoms],
+    };
+
+    for _ in 0..num_frames {
+        for j in 0..num_atoms {
+            frame.coords[j][0] += 1.0;
+            frame.coords[j][1] += 1.0;
+            frame.coords[j][2] += 1.0;
+            frame.time += 1.0;
+            frame.step += 1;
+        }
+        f.write(&frame)?;
+    }
+    f.flush()?;
+ 
+    Ok(tempfile)
+}
+
+// Iterate over a trajectory and do some stuff on it
+fn iterate_traj(file: &NamedTempFile, num_atoms: usize) -> Result<()> {
+    let path = file.path();
+    let traj = XTCTrajectory::open_read(path)?;
+    for frame in traj.into_iter() {
+        assert_eq!(frame?.len(), num_atoms);
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+// Iterate over a trajectory and keep_frames its frames
+// This benchmarks iteration speed when frames are not reused
+fn iterate_traj_keep_frames(file: &NamedTempFile, num_frames: usize) -> Result<()> {
+    let path = file.path();
+    let traj = XTCTrajectory::open_read(path)?;
+    let frames = traj.into_iter().filter_map(Result::ok).collect::<Vec<Rc<Frame>>>();
+    assert_eq!(num_frames, frames.len());
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+fn bench_iterate_traj(c: &mut Criterion) {
+    let num_atoms = 100;
+    let num_frames = 1000;
+    let tempfile = gen_test_traj(num_atoms, num_frames).unwrap();
+
+    let mut group = c.benchmark_group("iterate_traj");
+    group.significance_level(0.05)
+         .warm_up_time(Duration::from_secs(10))
+         .sample_size(2500)
+         .noise_threshold(0.05);  // high noise thresholds because of disk i/o
+    group.bench_function("iterate_traj", |b| b.iter(|| {
+        iterate_traj(black_box(&tempfile), black_box(num_atoms)).unwrap()
+    }));
+    group.bench_function("iterate_traj_keep_frames", |b| b.iter(|| {
+        iterate_traj_keep_frames(black_box(&tempfile), black_box(num_frames)).unwrap()
+    }));
+}
+
+criterion_group!(benches, bench_iterate_traj);
+criterion_main!(benches);
+