---
title: "Instant load increase | Grafana k6 documentation"
description: "Scripting example on how to instantly increase the number of VUs or iterations and hold them for a period of time"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Instant load increase

One of the common usages of performance testing tools it’s the so-called stepped arrival rate.

In k6, you can do that by using the `options` object, and configuring the number of iterations or VUs in different scenarios.

Here’s an example on how to instantly increase the number of iterations and hold them for a period of time.

JavaScript ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```javascript
import http from 'k6/http';
import { sleep } from 'k6';

export const options = {
  scenarios: {
    contacts: {
      executor: 'ramping-arrival-rate',
      preAllocatedVUs: 50,
      timeUnit: '1s',
      startRate: 50,
      stages: [
        { target: 200, duration: '30s' }, // linearly go from 50 iters/s to 200 iters/s for 30s
        { target: 500, duration: '0' }, // instantly jump to 500 iters/s
        { target: 500, duration: '10m' }, // continue with 500 iters/s for 10 minutes
      ],
    },
  },
};

export default function () {
  http.get('https://test.k6.io');
  sleep(1);
}
```

Here’s an example on how to instantly increase the number of VUs and hold them for a period of time.

JavaScript ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```javascript
import http from 'k6/http';
import { sleep } from 'k6';

export const options = {
  scenarios: {
    contacts: {
      executor: 'ramping-vus',
      startVUs: 3,
      stages: [
        { target: 20, duration: '30s' }, // linearly go from 3 VUs to 20 VUs for 30s
        { target: 100, duration: '0' }, // instantly jump to 100 VUs
        { target: 100, duration: '10m' }, // continue with 100 VUs for 10 minutes
      ],
    },
  },
};

export default function () {
  http.get('https://test.k6.io');
  sleep(1);
}
```