This question might be considered a duplicate. It is closely related to these: - https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/2241/121 - https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/14152/121 - https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/22419/121 - https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/7768/profiling-from-mathematica However, one simple reading of this question that I do not believe is covered in the answers above is answered with this [Front End option][1]: SetOptions[$FrontEndSession, EvaluationCompletionAction -> "ShowTiming"] This will print the total evaluation time for each cell as it completes in the lower left window margin: ![enter image description here][2] To make the setting persistent between sessions use `$FrontEnd` in place of `$FrontEndSession`. ---------- **Update:** `"ShowTiming"` was already covered in Brett's answer to: - https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/1722/does-absolutetiming-slow-the-evaluation-time [1]: http://reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/tutorial/OptionInspector.html [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/D7VZ7.png