diff --git a/sweet/benchmarks/bleve-query/main.go b/sweet/benchmarks/bleve-query/main.go
index 110b5f3..a616049 100644
--- a/sweet/benchmarks/bleve-query/main.go
+++ b/sweet/benchmarks/bleve-query/main.go
@@ -18,6 +18,12 @@
 	_ "github.com/blevesearch/bleve/analysis/analyzer/keyword"
 )
 
+var iterations int
+
+func init() {
+	flag.IntVar(&iterations, "iterations", 50, "number of times to iterate over the list of query terms")
+}
+
 func parseFlags() error {
 	flag.Parse()
 	if flag.NArg() != 1 {
@@ -26,13 +32,13 @@
 	return nil
 }
 
-func run(idxdir string) error {
+func run(idxdir string, iterations int) error {
 	index, err := bleve.Open(idxdir)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 	return driver.RunBenchmark("BleveQuery", func(_ *driver.B) error {
-		for j := 0; j < 50; j++ {
+		for j := 0; j < iterations; j++ {
 			for _, term := range terms {
 				query := bleve.NewTermQuery(term)
 				query.SetField("Text")
@@ -52,7 +58,7 @@
 		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, err)
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
-	if err := run(flag.Arg(0)); err != nil {
+	if err := run(flag.Arg(0), iterations); err != nil {
 		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, err)
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
diff --git a/sweet/benchmarks/fogleman-fauxgl/main.go b/sweet/benchmarks/fogleman-fauxgl/main.go
index 4b969e5..012d924 100644
--- a/sweet/benchmarks/fogleman-fauxgl/main.go
+++ b/sweet/benchmarks/fogleman-fauxgl/main.go
@@ -17,6 +17,12 @@
 
 var im image.Image
 
+var imagesPerRotation int
+
+func init() {
+	flag.IntVar(&imagesPerRotation, "images-per-rotation", 72, "number of images per rotation to generate")
+}
+
 func main() {
 	driver.SetFlags(flag.CommandLine)
 	flag.Parse()
@@ -25,6 +31,7 @@
 		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "expected input STL file")
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
+	inc := 360 / imagesPerRotation
 
 	// Load mesh into animation structure.
 	anim, err := animatebench.Load(flag.Arg(0))
@@ -35,7 +42,7 @@
 	err = driver.RunBenchmark("FoglemanFauxGLRenderRotateBoat", func(b *driver.B) error {
 		runtime.GC()
 		b.ResetTimer()
-		for i := 0; i < 360; i += 5 {
+		for i := 0; i < 360; i += inc {
 			im = anim.RenderNext()
 		}
 		return nil
diff --git a/sweet/benchmarks/gopher-lua/main.go b/sweet/benchmarks/gopher-lua/main.go
index 392bbb4..88c50c7 100644
--- a/sweet/benchmarks/gopher-lua/main.go
+++ b/sweet/benchmarks/gopher-lua/main.go
@@ -19,6 +19,12 @@
 	lua "github.com/yuin/gopher-lua"
 )
 
+var short bool
+
+func init() {
+	flag.BoolVar(&short, "short", false, "whether to run a short version of this benchmark")
+}
+
 func parseFlags() error {
 	flag.Parse()
 	if flag.NArg() != 2 {
@@ -61,6 +67,9 @@
 	if err := s.CallByParam(freq, input, lua.LNumber(2)); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	if short {
+		return nil
+	}
 	if err := s.CallByParam(count, input, lua.LString("GGT")); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
diff --git a/sweet/benchmarks/gvisor/main.go b/sweet/benchmarks/gvisor/main.go
index 0a21508..704fec9 100644
--- a/sweet/benchmarks/gvisor/main.go
+++ b/sweet/benchmarks/gvisor/main.go
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 	runscPath string
 	assetsDir string
 	tmpDir    string
+	short     bool
 }
 
 var cliCfg config
@@ -32,6 +33,7 @@
 	flag.StringVar(&cliCfg.runscPath, "runsc", "", "path to the runsc binary")
 	flag.StringVar(&cliCfg.assetsDir, "assets-dir", "", "path to the directory containing benchmark root filesystems")
 	flag.StringVar(&cliCfg.tmpDir, "tmp", "", "path to a temporary working directory")
+	flag.BoolVar(&cliCfg.short, "short", false, "whether to run a short version of the benchmarks")
 }
 
 type benchmark interface {
@@ -39,14 +41,20 @@
 	run(*config, io.Writer) error
 }
 
-// List of all benchmarks.
-var benchmarks = []benchmark{
-	startup{},
-	systemCall{500000},
-	httpServer{20 * time.Second},
-}
-
 func main1() error {
+	benchmarks := []benchmark{
+		startup{},
+		systemCall{500000},
+		httpServer{20 * time.Second},
+	}
+	if cliCfg.short {
+		benchmarks = []benchmark{
+			startup{},
+			systemCall{500},
+			httpServer{1 * time.Second},
+		}
+	}
+
 	// Run each benchmark once.
 	for _, bench := range benchmarks {
 		// Run the benchmark command under runsc.
diff --git a/sweet/benchmarks/internal/driver/driver.go b/sweet/benchmarks/internal/driver/driver.go
index c72093b..015691a 100644
--- a/sweet/benchmarks/internal/driver/driver.go
+++ b/sweet/benchmarks/internal/driver/driver.go
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 	memProfileDir string
 	perfDir       string
 	perfFlags     string
+	short         bool
 )
 
 func SetFlags(f *flag.FlagSet) {
diff --git a/sweet/benchmarks/tile38/main.go b/sweet/benchmarks/tile38/main.go
index dc92162..f631724 100644
--- a/sweet/benchmarks/tile38/main.go
+++ b/sweet/benchmarks/tile38/main.go
@@ -30,12 +30,12 @@
 	host        string
 	port        int
 	seed        int64
-	iter        int
 	serverBin   string
 	dataPath    string
 	tmpDir      string
 	serverProcs int
 	isProfiling bool
+	short       bool
 }
 
 func (c *config) profilePath(typ driver.ProfileType) string {
@@ -60,10 +60,10 @@
 	flag.StringVar(&cliCfg.host, "host", "", "hostname of tile38 server")
 	flag.IntVar(&cliCfg.port, "port", 9851, "port for tile38 server")
 	flag.Int64Var(&cliCfg.seed, "seed", 0, "seed for PRNG")
-	flag.IntVar(&cliCfg.iter, "iter", 60*50000, "how many iterations to run (for profiling)")
 	flag.StringVar(&cliCfg.serverBin, "server", "", "path to tile38 server binary")
 	flag.StringVar(&cliCfg.dataPath, "data", "", "path to tile38 server data")
 	flag.StringVar(&cliCfg.tmpDir, "tmp", "", "path to temporary directory")
+	flag.BoolVar(&cliCfg.short, "short", false, "whether to run a short version of this benchmark")
 
 	// Grab the number of procs we have and give ourselves only 1/4 of those.
 	procs := runtime.GOMAXPROCS(-1)
@@ -313,8 +313,12 @@
 		driver.BenchmarkPID(srvCmd.Process.Pid),
 		driver.DoPerf(true),
 	}
+	iters := 60 * 50000
+	if cfg.short {
+		iters = 1000
+	}
 	return driver.RunBenchmark(bench.name(), func(d *driver.B) error {
-		return bench.run(d, cfg.host, cfg.port, cfg.serverProcs, cfg.iter)
+		return bench.run(d, cfg.host, cfg.port, cfg.serverProcs, iters)
 	}, opts...)
 }
 
@@ -327,6 +331,10 @@
 	for _, typ := range driver.ProfileTypes {
 		cliCfg.isProfiling = cliCfg.isProfiling || driver.ProfilingEnabled(typ)
 	}
+	benchmarks := benchmarks
+	if cliCfg.short {
+		benchmarks = benchmarks[:1]
+	}
 	for _, bench := range benchmarks {
 		if err := runOne(bench, &cliCfg); err != nil {
 			fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "error: %v\n", err)
diff --git a/sweet/cmd/sweet/benchmark.go b/sweet/cmd/sweet/benchmark.go
index 1779dd2..50bc6c5 100644
--- a/sweet/cmd/sweet/benchmark.go
+++ b/sweet/cmd/sweet/benchmark.go
@@ -209,6 +209,7 @@
 			BinDir:   binDir,
 			SrcDir:   srcDir,
 			BenchDir: benchDir,
+			Short:    r.short,
 		}
 		if err := b.harness.Build(cfg, &bcfg); err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("build %s for %s: %v", b.name, cfg.Name, err)
@@ -261,6 +262,7 @@
 			AssetsDir: assetsDir,
 			Args:      args,
 			Results:   results,
+			Short:     r.short,
 		})
 	}
 
diff --git a/sweet/cmd/sweet/run.go b/sweet/cmd/sweet/run.go
index c03b3cc..4239149 100644
--- a/sweet/cmd/sweet/run.go
+++ b/sweet/cmd/sweet/run.go
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
 	memProfile bool
 	perf       bool
 	perfFlags  string
+	short      bool
 }
 
 type runCmd struct {
@@ -124,6 +125,7 @@
 	f.BoolVar(&c.quiet, "quiet", false, "whether to suppress activity output on stderr (no effect on -shell)")
 	f.BoolVar(&c.printCmd, "shell", false, "whether to print the commands being executed to stdout")
 	f.BoolVar(&c.stopOnError, "stop-on-error", false, "whether to stop running benchmarks if an error occurs or a benchmark fails")
+	f.BoolVar(&c.short, "short", false, "whether to run a short version of the benchmarks for testing")
 	f.Var(&c.toRun, "run", "benchmark group or comma-separated list of benchmarks to run")
 }
 
diff --git a/sweet/common/harness.go b/sweet/common/harness.go
index d5afb2a..525235a 100644
--- a/sweet/common/harness.go
+++ b/sweet/common/harness.go
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@
 	// BenchDir is the path to the benchmark's source directory in the Sweet
 	// repository.
 	BenchDir string
+
+	// Short indicates whether or not to run a short version of the benchmarks
+	// for testing. Guaranteed to be the same as RunConfig.Short for any
+	// RunConfig.
+	Short bool
 }
 
 type RunConfig struct {
@@ -50,6 +55,11 @@
 	// Results is the file to which benchmark results should be appended
 	// in the Go benchmark format.
 	Results *os.File
+
+	// Short indicates whether or not to run a short version of the benchmarks
+	// for testing. Guaranteed to be the same as BuildConfig.Short for any
+	// BuildConfig.
+	Short bool
 }
 
 type Harness interface {
diff --git a/sweet/harnesses/go-build.go b/sweet/harnesses/go-build.go
index 16eb7ca..2e57a80 100644
--- a/sweet/harnesses/go-build.go
+++ b/sweet/harnesses/go-build.go
@@ -72,7 +72,12 @@
 }
 
 func (h GoBuild) Build(cfg *common.Config, bcfg *common.BuildConfig) error {
-	for _, bench := range buildBenchmarks {
+	benchmarks := buildBenchmarks
+	if bcfg.Short {
+		// Do only the pkgsite benchmark.
+		benchmarks = []*buildBenchmark{buildBenchmarks[2]}
+	}
+	for _, bench := range benchmarks {
 		// Generate a symlink to the repository and put it in bin.
 		// It's not a binary, but it's the only place we can put it
 		// and still access it in Run.
@@ -94,7 +99,12 @@
 }
 
 func (h GoBuild) Run(cfg *common.Config, rcfg *common.RunConfig) error {
-	for _, bench := range buildBenchmarks {
+	benchmarks := buildBenchmarks
+	if rcfg.Short {
+		// Do only the pkgsite benchmark.
+		benchmarks = []*buildBenchmark{buildBenchmarks[2]}
+	}
+	for _, bench := range benchmarks {
 		cmd := exec.Command(
 			filepath.Join(rcfg.BinDir, "go-build-bench"),
 			append(rcfg.Args, []string{
diff --git a/sweet/harnesses/gvisor.go b/sweet/harnesses/gvisor.go
index 2b10b6f..dce4612 100644
--- a/sweet/harnesses/gvisor.go
+++ b/sweet/harnesses/gvisor.go
@@ -57,13 +57,17 @@
 }
 
 func (h GVisor) Run(cfg *common.Config, rcfg *common.RunConfig) error {
+	args := append(rcfg.Args, []string{
+		"-runsc", filepath.Join(rcfg.BinDir, "runsc"),
+		"-assets-dir", rcfg.AssetsDir,
+		"-tmp", rcfg.TmpDir,
+	}...)
+	if rcfg.Short {
+		args = append(args, "-short")
+	}
 	cmd := exec.Command(
 		filepath.Join(rcfg.BinDir, "gvisor-bench"),
-		append(rcfg.Args, []string{
-			"-runsc", filepath.Join(rcfg.BinDir, "runsc"),
-			"-assets-dir", rcfg.AssetsDir,
-			"-tmp", rcfg.TmpDir,
-		}...)...,
+		args...,
 	)
 	cmd.Env = cfg.ExecEnv.Collapse()
 	cmd.Stdout = rcfg.Results
diff --git a/sweet/harnesses/local.go b/sweet/harnesses/local.go
index c5aa29f..169d3ad 100644
--- a/sweet/harnesses/local.go
+++ b/sweet/harnesses/local.go
@@ -79,11 +79,14 @@
 	return &localBenchHarness{
 		binName: "bleve-index-bench",
 		genArgs: func(cfg *common.Config, rcfg *common.RunConfig) []string {
-			return []string{
+			args := []string{
 				"-batch-size", "100",
-				"-documents", "1000",
 				filepath.Join(rcfg.AssetsDir, "enwiki-20080103-pages-articles.xml.bz2"),
 			}
+			if rcfg.Short {
+				args = append([]string{"-documents", "100"}, args...)
+			}
+			return args
 		},
 	}
 }
@@ -92,9 +95,11 @@
 	return &localBenchHarness{
 		binName: "bleve-query-bench",
 		genArgs: func(cfg *common.Config, rcfg *common.RunConfig) []string {
-			return []string{
-				filepath.Join(rcfg.AssetsDir, "index"),
+			args := []string{filepath.Join(rcfg.AssetsDir, "index")}
+			if rcfg.Short {
+				args = append([]string{"-iterations", "1"}, args...)
 			}
+			return args
 		},
 		beforeRun: func(cfg *common.Config, rcfg *common.RunConfig) error {
 			// Make sure all the index passed to the benchmark is writeable.
@@ -108,9 +113,11 @@
 	return &localBenchHarness{
 		binName: "fogleman-fauxgl-bench",
 		genArgs: func(cfg *common.Config, rcfg *common.RunConfig) []string {
-			return []string{
-				filepath.Join(rcfg.AssetsDir, "3dbenchy.stl"),
+			args := []string{filepath.Join(rcfg.AssetsDir, "3dbenchy.stl")}
+			if rcfg.Short {
+				args = append([]string{"-images-per-rotation", "1"}, args...)
 			}
+			return args
 		},
 		noStdout: true,
 	}
@@ -133,10 +140,14 @@
 	return &localBenchHarness{
 		binName: "gopher-lua-bench",
 		genArgs: func(cfg *common.Config, rcfg *common.RunConfig) []string {
-			return []string{
+			args := []string{
 				filepath.Join(rcfg.AssetsDir, "k-nucleotide.lua"),
 				filepath.Join(rcfg.AssetsDir, "input.txt"),
 			}
+			if rcfg.Short {
+				args = append([]string{"-short"}, args...)
+			}
+			return args
 		},
 	}
 }
diff --git a/sweet/harnesses/tile38.go b/sweet/harnesses/tile38.go
index ef1692a..32fcf95 100644
--- a/sweet/harnesses/tile38.go
+++ b/sweet/harnesses/tile38.go
@@ -60,15 +60,19 @@
 	if err := makeWriteable(dataPath); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	args := append(rcfg.Args, []string{
+		"-host", "127.0.0.1",
+		"-port", "9851",
+		"-server", filepath.Join(rcfg.BinDir, server),
+		"-data", dataPath,
+		"-tmp", rcfg.TmpDir,
+	}...)
+	if rcfg.Short {
+		args = append(args, "-short")
+	}
 	cmd := exec.Command(
 		filepath.Join(rcfg.BinDir, "tile38-bench"),
-		append(rcfg.Args, []string{
-			"-host", "127.0.0.1",
-			"-port", "9851",
-			"-server", filepath.Join(rcfg.BinDir, server),
-			"-data", dataPath,
-			"-tmp", rcfg.TmpDir,
-		}...)...,
+		args...,
 	)
 	cmd.Env = cfg.ExecEnv.Collapse()
 	cmd.Stdout = rcfg.Results