diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 584ddd24..41ee4f1f 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ env:
   - TOXENV=pypy
   - TOXENV=pypy3
   - TOXENV=flake8
+  - TOXENV=perf
 before_install:
   - pip install codecov
 install:
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index a383d3c5..491131f9 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # IMPORTANT: for compatibility with `python setup.py make [alias]`, ensure:
-# 1. Every alias is preceded by @make (eg: @make alias)
+# 1. Every alias is preceded by @[+]make (eg: @make alias)
 # 2. A maximum of one @make alias or command per line
 #
 # Sample makefile compatible with `python setup.py make`:
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 	testnose
 	testsetup
 	testcoverage
+	testperf
 	installdev
 	install
 	build
@@ -29,24 +30,26 @@
 	none
 
 alltests:
-	@make testcoverage
-	@make flake8
-	@make testsetup
+	@+make testcoverage
+	@+make testperf
+	@+make flake8
+	@+make testsetup
 
 all:
-	@make alltests
-	@make build
+	@+make alltests
+	@+make build
 
 flake8:
-	flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero tqdm/
-	flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero examples/
-	flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero .
+	@+flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero tqdm/
+	@+flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero examples/
+	@+flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero .
+	@+flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero tqdm/tests/
 
 test:
 	tox --skip-missing-interpreters
 
 testnose:
-	nosetests tqdm -d -v
+	nosetests tqdm --ignore-files="tests_perf\.py" -d -v
 
 testsetup:
 	python setup.py check --restructuredtext --strict
@@ -54,7 +57,10 @@ testsetup:
 
 testcoverage:
 	rm -f .coverage  # coverage erase
-	nosetests tqdm --with-coverage --cover-package=tqdm -d -v
+	nosetests tqdm --with-coverage --cover-package=tqdm --cover-erase --cover-min-percentage=80 --ignore-files="tests_perf\.py" -d -v
+
+testperf:  # do not use coverage, slows down the perf test and fail
+	nosetests tqdm/tests/tests_perf.py -d -v
 
 installdev:
 	python setup.py develop --uninstall
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 32a655b5..4bd14aa1 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,10 +7,10 @@ import sys
 import subprocess
 # For Makefile parsing
 import shlex
-try:    # pragma: no cover
+try:  # pragma: no cover
     import ConfigParser
     import StringIO
-except ImportError:    # pragma: no cover
+except ImportError:  # pragma: no cover
     # Python 3 compatibility
     import configparser as ConfigParser
     import io as StringIO
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ def parse_makefile_aliases(filepath):
     # Adding a fake section to make the Makefile a valid Ini file
     ini_str = '[root]\n'
     with open(filepath, 'r') as fd:
-        ini_str = ini_str + fd.read().replace('@make ', '')
+        ini_str = ini_str + fd.read().replace('\t@', '\t').\
+            replace('\t+', '\t').replace('\tmake ', '\t')
     ini_fp = StringIO.StringIO(ini_str)
     # Parse using ConfigParser
     config = ConfigParser.RawConfigParser()
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index b5e52c06..524e873a 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 # and then run "tox" from this directory.
 
 [tox]
-envlist = py26, py27, py32, py33, py34, pypy, pypy3, flake8, setup.py
+envlist = py26, py27, py32, py33, py34, pypy, pypy3, flake8, setup.py, perf
 
 [testenv]
 passenv = TRAVIS TRAVIS_JOB_ID TRAVIS_BRANCH
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ deps =
     coverage<4
     coveralls
 commands =
-    nosetests --with-coverage --cover-package=tqdm -d -v tqdm/
+    nosetests --with-coverage --cover-package=tqdm --ignore-files="tests_perf\.py" -d -v tqdm/
     coveralls
 
 [testenv:flake8]
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ commands =
     flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero tqdm/
     flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero examples/
     flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero .
+    flake8 --max-line-length=80 --count --statistics --exit-zero tqdm/tests/
 
 [testenv:setup.py]
 deps =
@@ -30,3 +31,9 @@ deps =
 commands =
     python setup.py check --restructuredtext --metadata --strict
     python setup.py make none
+
+[testenv:perf]
+deps =
+    nose
+commands =
+    nosetests tqdm/tests/tests_perf.py -d -v
diff --git a/tqdm/_version.py b/tqdm/_version.py
index a464a697..22716001 100644
--- a/tqdm/_version.py
+++ b/tqdm/_version.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # Definition of the version number
-version_info = 3, 1, 0  # major, minor, patch, -extra
+version_info = 3, 1, 1  # major, minor, patch, -extra
 
 # Nice string for the version
 __version__ = '.'.join(map(str, version_info)).replace('.-', '-').strip('.-')
diff --git a/tqdm/tests/tests_perf.py b/tqdm/tests/tests_perf.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..831272fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tqdm/tests/tests_perf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+from time import time
+
+try:
+    from StringIO import StringIO
+    _range = xrange
+except:
+    from io import StringIO
+    _range = range
+
+from tqdm import trange
+from tqdm import tqdm
+
+
+_tic_toc = [None]
+
+
+def tic():
+    _tic_toc[0] = time()
+
+
+def toc():
+    return time() - _tic_toc[0]
+
+
+def test_iter_overhead():
+    """ Test overhead of iteration based tqdm """
+    total = int(1e6)
+
+    our_file = StringIO()
+    a = 0
+    tic()
+    for i in trange(total, file=our_file):
+        a = a + i
+    time_tqdm = toc()
+    our_file.close()
+
+    a = 0
+    tic()
+    for i in _range(total):
+        a = a + i
+    time_bench = toc()
+
+    # Compute relative overhead of tqdm against native range()
+    try:
+        assert(time_tqdm < 6 * time_bench)
+    except AssertionError:
+        raise AssertionError('trange(%g): %f, range(%g): %f' %
+                             (total, time_tqdm, total, time_bench))
+
+
+def test_manual_overhead():
+    """ Test overhead of manual tqdm """
+    total = int(1e6)
+
+    our_file = StringIO()
+    t = tqdm(total=total*10, file=our_file, leave=True)
+    a = 0
+    tic()
+    for i in _range(total):
+        a = a + i
+        t.update(10)
+    time_tqdm = toc()
+    our_file.close()
+
+    a = 0
+    tic()
+    for i in _range(total):
+        a = a + i
+    time_bench = toc()
+
+    # Compute relative overhead of tqdm against native range()
+    try:
+        assert(time_tqdm < 17 * time_bench)
+    except AssertionError:
+        raise AssertionError('tqdm(%g): %f, range(%g): %f' %
+                             (total, time_tqdm, total, time_bench))
diff --git a/tqdm/tests/tests_tqdm.py b/tqdm/tests/tests_tqdm.py
index 8b4119ae..780b1f0a 100644
--- a/tqdm/tests/tests_tqdm.py
+++ b/tqdm/tests/tests_tqdm.py
@@ -383,6 +383,7 @@ def test_close():
 
 def test_smoothing():
     """ Test exponential weighted average smoothing """
+
     # -- Test disabling smoothing
     our_file = StringIO()
     for i in tqdm(_range(3), file=our_file, smoothing=None, leave=True):