OpenClaw performance depends on multiple factors: model selection, system resources, caching strategy, and application architecture. This guide helps you identify bottlenecks and apply targeted optimizations to reduce latency and improve throughput.
Why This Is Hard to Do Yourself
These are the common pitfalls that trip people up.
Identifying Bottlenecks
Performance issues can stem from slow model inference, network latency, inefficient prompts, or system resource constraints. Pinpointing the actual bottleneck requires careful profiling and measurement.
Model Latency vs Application Latency
Time spent waiting for LLM responses (model latency) is often the largest component, but application overhead (prompt construction, context retrieval, response parsing) can add significant delay if not optimized.
Caching Tradeoffs
Aggressive caching improves response times but can serve stale results. Finding the right balance between freshness and speed depends on your use case and how frequently underlying data changes.
Resource Allocation
OpenClaw competes for CPU, memory, and network resources with other processes. Proper resource allocation and system tuning can prevent slowdowns under load.
Step-by-Step Guide
Benchmark Current Performance
Establish baseline metrics before making changes. Measure end-to-end response time, time-to-first-token (TTFT), and tokens-per-second for typical queries. Use OpenClaw's built-in timing logs or add instrumentation to track request duration.
# Enable timing logs
export OPENCLAW_LOG_LEVEL=debug
# Test with a sample query and capture timing
time openclaw chat "What is the weather today?"
# Look for timing breakdowns in logs:
# - Prompt construction: Xms
# - Model inference: Xms
# - Response parsing: XmsProfile Response Times
Break down where time is spent: prompt assembly, tool execution, model inference, and response formatting. Use OpenClaw's verbose logging mode to see per-component timings. Identify the slowest component and focus optimization efforts there first.
# Run OpenClaw with verbose timing
openclaw chat --verbose --timing "Summarize this document: [large text]"
# Example output:
# [TIMING] Prompt construction: 12ms
# [TIMING] Tool execution (file read): 145ms
# [TIMING] Model inference: 2340ms
# [TIMING] Response parsing: 8ms
# Total: 2505msOptimize Model Selection and Routing
Choose the right model for each task. Use smaller, faster models (GPT-3.5, Claude Haiku) for simple queries and reserve larger models (GPT-4, Claude Opus) for complex reasoning. Configure model routing rules to automatically select the appropriate model based on query complexity.
# Example: model routing config
model_routing:
simple_queries:
model: claude-3-haiku
max_tokens: 500
triggers: ["weather", "time", "hello"]
complex_queries:
model: claude-3-opus
max_tokens: 2000
triggers: ["analyze", "compare", "explain in detail"]Configure Caching
Enable response caching for deterministic queries (documentation lookups, static data) with appropriate TTLs. Use prompt caching (if your provider supports it) to avoid re-processing common context. Configure cache size limits to prevent memory bloat.
# Enable response caching
export OPENCLAW_CACHE_ENABLED=true
export OPENCLAW_CACHE_TTL=3600 # 1 hour
# Configure cache size (max entries)
export OPENCLAW_CACHE_MAX_SIZE=1000
# Use prompt caching for static context
# (Claude supports caching prompt prefixes)
openclaw chat --cache-prompt-prefix "System context: [large documentation]"Tune Node.js and System Settings
Increase Node.js heap size if OpenClaw runs out of memory during large operations. Adjust system file descriptor limits for high-concurrency scenarios. Enable HTTP/2 keepalive for faster API connections.
# Increase Node.js heap size
export NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096"
# Increase file descriptor limit (macOS/Linux)
ulimit -n 10000
# Enable HTTP/2 keepalive for API connections
export OPENCLAW_HTTP_KEEPALIVE=true
# Tune concurrency limits
export OPENCLAW_MAX_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS=5Warning: Be cautious with concurrency limits. Most LLM APIs have rate limits (requests/min and tokens/min). Setting concurrency too high can trigger rate limit errors.
Set Up Performance Monitoring
Implement continuous monitoring to track performance over time. Log response times, error rates, and resource usage. Set up alerts for performance degradation. Review metrics weekly to identify trends and proactively address issues before they impact users.
# Example: log performance metrics to a file
openclaw chat "query" --log-metrics >> /var/log/openclaw-metrics.jsonl
# Monitor with tail and jq
tail -f /var/log/openclaw-metrics.jsonl | jq '.duration_ms'
# Set up alerting (example with simple threshold check)
if [ $(jq '.duration_ms' last_response.json) -gt 5000 ]; then
echo "Alert: Response time exceeded 5s" | mail -s "OpenClaw Performance Alert" ops@example.com
fiNeed Expert Performance Tuning?
Our performance optimization specialists help you profile, diagnose, and resolve OpenClaw latency issues. We handle model selection, caching strategy, system tuning, and monitoring setup to ensure fast, reliable responses at scale.
Get matched with a specialist who can help.
Sign Up for Expert Help →