diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4c48f21a6e..53987c4169 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ For experimental package changes, see the [experimental CHANGELOG](experimental/
 
 ### :house: (Internal)
 
+* test: added a performance benchmark test for span creation [#4105](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/pull/4105)
+
 ## 1.17.0
 
 ### :bug: (Bug Fix)
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index fb734e564d..6d5460207d 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
     "test:browser": "lerna run test:browser",
     "test:webworker": "lerna run test:webworker",
     "test:backcompat": "lerna run test:backcompat",
+    "test:bench": "lerna run test:bench",
     "bootstrap": "lerna bootstrap --hoist --nohoist='zone.js'",
     "changelog": "lerna-changelog",
     "codecov": "lerna run codecov",
@@ -65,6 +66,7 @@
   "devDependencies": {
     "@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin": "5.59.11",
     "@typescript-eslint/parser": "5.59.11",
+    "benchmark": "2.1.4",
     "eslint": "8.44.0",
     "eslint-config-prettier": "9.0.0",
     "eslint-plugin-header": "3.1.1",
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-base/package.json b/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-base/package.json
index 77e7a64c28..600caa4294 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-base/package.json
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-base/package.json
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
     "test": "nyc ts-mocha -p tsconfig.json 'test/**/*.test.ts' --exclude 'test/browser/**/*.ts'",
     "test:browser": "karma start --single-run",
     "test:webworker": "karma start karma.worker.js --single-run",
+    "test:bench": "node test/performance/benchmark/index.js",
     "tdd": "npm run tdd:node",
     "tdd:node": "npm run test -- --watch-extensions ts --watch",
     "tdd:browser": "karma start",
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-base/test/performance/benchmark/index.js b/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-base/test/performance/benchmark/index.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..83558ea01f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-base/test/performance/benchmark/index.js
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+require('./span');
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-base/test/performance/benchmark/span.js b/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-base/test/performance/benchmark/span.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ac978a6140
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-base/test/performance/benchmark/span.js
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+const Benchmark = require('benchmark');
+const { BasicTracerProvider } = require('../../../build/src');
+
+const tracerProvider = new BasicTracerProvider();
+const tracer = tracerProvider.getTracer('test')
+
+const suite = new Benchmark.Suite();
+
+suite.on('cycle', event => {
+  console.log(String(event.target));
+});
+
+suite.add('create spans (10 attributes)', function() {
+  const span = tracer.startSpan('span');
+  span.setAttribute('aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa', 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+  span.setAttribute('bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb', 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+  span.setAttribute('cccccccccccccccccccc', 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+  span.setAttribute('dddddddddddddddddddd', 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+  span.setAttribute('eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee', 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+  span.setAttribute('ffffffffffffffffffff', 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+  span.setAttribute('gggggggggggggggggggg', 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+  span.setAttribute('hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh', 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+  span.setAttribute('iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii', 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+  span.setAttribute('jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj', 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+});
+
+suite.run();