PHP Profiler for Visual Studio Code

Open, view, and analyze Xdebug profile files in the cachegrind format. The extension also highlights hot paths in your source code based on profiling results. Discover more features in the sections below.

Overview

PHP code profiling enables you to analyze the execution time and call count for every function in your codebase.

This extension allows you to inspect Xdebug profile files containing PHP code performance metrics. It works seamlessly in combination with PHP Tools for Visual Studio Code. Debug, profile, and analyze profiling results directly within Visual Studio Code.

Quick Setup for PHP Profiling

Ensure PHP is installed on your system.
Install the Xdebug PHP extension.
Enable the PHP zlib extension (recommended).

With PHP Tools for Visual Studio Code, configure your launch.json with the following settings:

{
    "name": "Launch Built-in server & Profile",
    "type": "php",
    "request": "launch",
    "runtimeArgs": [
        "-S", "localhost:8888", "-t", "."
    ],
    "noDebug": true, // <-- disable debugging
    "profile": true, // <-- enable profiling
}

Opening Profiling Results

Open the file containing your profiling data. By default, profile files are named cachegrind.out.%p.gz.

Using the Command Palette

Open the Command Palette and execute Open Profile File (Xdebug Profiling Output).
Select the profile file and confirm.

Drag & Drop "cachegrind.out.*.gz" File

Alternatively, if your profile file follows the cachegrind.out.%p.gz naming convention, you can open it directly in the Visual Studio Code editor using the File/Open File menu.

Note: Large profile files may take some time to load.

Inspecting Call Times

The following view displays all functions with their call counts (Calls), time spent within the function body (Self Time), and total time including nested function calls (Time).

Inspecting Callers and Callees

The Function Details view focuses on a single function, displaying all calling functions (callers) and all called functions (callees), along with their respective timing information.

Highlighting Hot Paths

The loaded profiling result file is automatically analyzed, and hot paths are highlighted directly in your source code. You can toggle this highlighting on or off in the profiling result view.

Notes

The extension may send error telemetry data to us (DEVSENSE s.r.o.), if telemetry is enabled in VS Code (see Telemetry settings). All data is anonymized, sampled, and automatically deleted after 30 days. This helps us improve product stability and reliability. We do not share this data with any third parties.

PHP Profiler Pro +

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