diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 25923cfc61..61740ee73a 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -42,10 +42,11 @@ setenv=
 
 # see also .coveragerc
 deps=pytest-cov
+     pytest-xdist
      coverage
      mock
 commands=
-  python -m pytest --cov=sqlalchemy --cov-report term --cov-report xml \
+  python -m pytest -n4 --cov=sqlalchemy --cov-report term --cov-report xml \
     --exclude-tag memory-intensive \
     --exclude-tag timing-intensive \
     -k "not aaa_profiling" \