diff --git a/benchmark/sql_parsing_speed.py b/benchmark/sql_parsing_speed.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2d5f7608
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/sql_parsing_speed.py
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+from path import Path
+import genparse
+import pylab as pl
+import argparse
+import logging
+from time import time
+from arsenal import iterview, timers, timeit, colors
+from arsenal.iterextras import unique
+from genparse.segmentation import prefixes
+
+#from genparse.cfglm import EarleyBoolMaskCFGLM
+from genparse.util import LarkStuff
+
+from genparse.cfglm import CFGLM
+from genparse.experimental.earley import EarleyLM
+
+
+def load_examples(example_path):
+    return unique(map(str.strip, open(example_path, 'r')))   # XXX: why are there duplicates?
+
+def main():
+
+    root = Path(genparse.__file__).dirname() / '..'
+
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+        description='Test character-level grammar coverage on a set of examples.'
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '--grammar',
+        type=Path,
+        default=root / 'benchmark/grammars/sql_case_insensitive.lark',
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '--examples',
+        type=Path,
+        help='text file with one example per line',
+        default=root / 'benchmark/datasets/spider_dev_set.txt',
+    )
+    parser.add_argument('--out_path', type=str, help='output file')
+    parser.add_argument('--plot', action='store_true')
+
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    guide = {}
+    with timeit('preprocessing'):
+        cfg = LarkStuff(open(args.grammar).read()).char_cfg(0.9, ignore='[ ]?')
+        guide['earley'] = EarleyLM(cfg)
+#        guide['cfglm'] = CFGLM(cfg)
+
+    T = timers()
+
+    start = time()
+    for i, example in iterview(list(enumerate(load_examples(args.examples)))[:10]):
+        print(example)
+
+        for name in guide:
+            guide[name].clear_cache()
+
+        for prefix in prefixes(example):
+
+            for name in guide:
+                with T[name](n=len(prefix)):
+                    p = guide[name].p_next(prefix)
+
+                if not p: print(colors.light.red % f'FAILED {i}: {prefix}')
+
+    print('total time:', time() - start, 'seconds')
+
+    T.compare()
+
+    if args.plot:
+        T.plot_feature('n')
+        pl.show()
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main()