TL;DR When you have Jest as your test runner, passing the --maxWorkers=50% option will make the tests faster in most cases. For watch mode, use --maxWorkers=25%, and for CI disable Jest workers with --runInBand. You can experiment with the percentage and fine-tune for your particular setup. // package.json { "scripts": { // standalone Jest "test": "jest --maxWorkers=50%", "test:watch": "jest --wat