 <pre><code>timeit.timeit(stmt='pass', setup='pass', timer=&lt;default timer&gt;, number=1000000) </code></pre> <p>Stupid question, the default number of times the statement is executed is one million... I should have read <code>timeit</code> doc before...</p> <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; timeit.timeit('999 in list(xrange(1000))', number=1) 9.083747863769531e-05 </code></pre>