--- title: Getting started with Load testing with K6 on Windows 11 description: A beginner-friendly walkthrough shows how to install and configure K6, a free load testing tool, on Windows 11 using Winget. It builds a simple .NET API... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/getting-started-with-load-testing-with-k6-on-windows-11-n7bu1yngu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Getting started with Load testing with K6 on Windows 11 | daily.dev og:description: A beginner-friendly walkthrough shows how to install and configure K6, a free load testing tool, on Windows 11 using Winget. It builds a simple .NET API... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/getting-started-with-load-testing-with-k6-on-windows-11-n7bu1yngu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/n7Bu1yNGu.png og:image:alt: Getting started with Load testing with K6 on Windows 11 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Getting started with Load testing with K6 on Windows 11 **[Code4IT](https://daily.dev/sources/code4it)** · 10 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A beginner-friendly walkthrough shows how to install and configure K6, a free load testing tool, on Windows 11 using Winget. It builds a simple .NET API endpoint with artificial delay to demonstrate load testing concepts, then explains K6's core ideas: virtual users (VUs), scripts generated via k6 new, HTTP verb functions, stages for ramping load up and down, and scenarios for customizing test behavior. The piece closes with a breakdown of the metrics in K6's final report, such as http_req_duration, data_received, and iterations, and promises follow-up articles applying K6 to real performance investigations. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I install k6 on Windows 11? Install k6 using Winget with the command winget install k6 --source winget. Verify the installation by opening a Bash shell (not PowerShell) and running k6 --version, which prints the installed version and the related git commit, for example k6.exe v0.50.0. PowerShell can work too, but requires modifying system keys to recognize the k6 command. _Developers setting up load testing tooling on Windows can find similar step-by-step walkthroughs on daily.dev._ ### What do the vus and duration options control in a k6 script? The vus option sets the number of virtual users, or concurrent simulated requests, run during the test, while duration sets how long the test executes, for example 30 seconds. Increasing vus from 1 to 3 let the same 30-second test complete 16 requests instead of 6, since more concurrent users were hitting the endpoint simultaneously. _Anyone tuning concurrency settings for load tests can track practical K6 examples like this on daily.dev._ ### How do k6 stages work for ramping load up and down during a test? Stages let you define multiple phases of a test, each with its own duration and target number of virtual users, to simulate gradual load changes. For example, a three-stage config can ramp up to 20 VUs over 30 seconds, hold around 10 VUs for 90 seconds, then taper to 0 over 20 seconds, with total duration equal to the sum of all stage durations. _Engineers designing realistic traffic ramp patterns can follow configuration breakdowns like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Load testing a web API with k6](https://daily.dev/posts/load-testing-a-web-api-with-k6-gvpnzzpj0) · Flavio Copes · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to generate real-world load tests using Grafana Cloud k6 and production telemetry](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-generate-real-world-load-tests-using-grafana-cloud-k6-and-production-telemetry-tu3zo1jh6) · Grafana Labs · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Performance testing best practices: How to prepare for peak demand with Grafana Cloud k6](https://daily.dev/posts/performance-testing-best-practices-how-to-prepare-for-peak-demand-with-grafana-cloud-k6-imjoejj0c) · Grafana Labs · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [API Performance Testing: How to Design Realistic Tests](https://daily.dev/posts/api-performance-testing-how-to-design-realistic-tests-id4corgba) · DEV · 4 upvotes · 0 comments - [Seamless k6.io Performance Testing in Scala Projects Using Scala.js](https://daily.dev/posts/seamless-k6-io-performance-testing-in-scala-projects-using-scala-js-ormkziap4) · SoftwareMill · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#windows](https://daily.dev/tags/windows), [#.net](https://daily.dev/tags/.net), [#load-testing](https://daily.dev/tags/load-testing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/getting-started-with-load-testing-with-k6-on-windows-11-n7bu1yngu) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Getting started with Load testing with K6 on Windows 11","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/getting-started-with-load-testing-with-k6-on-windows-11-n7bu1yngu","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/getting-started-with-load-testing-with-k6-on-windows-11-n7bu1yngu"},"datePublished":"2026-10-04T13:06:37.316Z","dateModified":"2026-10-04T13:09:56.508Z","description":"A beginner-friendly walkthrough shows how to install and configure K6, a free load testing tool, on Windows 11 using Winget. 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