diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 571bb5f440..6b1a6cd8e0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ git-annex (8.20200909) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
   * Parse youtube-dl progress output, which lets progress be displayed
     when doing concurrent downloads.
   * Fix build with Benchmark build flag.
+  * Enable building with git-annex benchmark by default, only turning it
+    off when the criterion library is not installed.
 
  -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Mon, 14 Sep 2020 18:34:37 -0400
 
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 06d9f9f044..d1d3697fd3 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ Build-Depends:
 	libghc-socks-dev,
 	libghc-vector-dev,
 	libghc-filepath-bytestring-dev,
+	libghc-criterion-dev,
 	lsof [linux-any],
 	ikiwiki,
 	libimage-magick-perl,
diff --git a/git-annex.cabal b/git-annex.cabal
index f6f92326b2..03320a9dd8 100644
--- a/git-annex.cabal
+++ b/git-annex.cabal
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ Flag MagicMime
 
 Flag Benchmark
   Description: Enable benchmarking
-  Default: False
+  Default: True
 
 Flag DebugLocks
   Description: Debug location of MVar/STM deadlocks
diff --git a/stack.yaml b/stack.yaml
index b4a866c7b5..524f3ea7f2 100644
--- a/stack.yaml
+++ b/stack.yaml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ flags:
     magicmime: false
     dbus: false
     debuglocks: false
-    benchmark: false
+    benchmark: true
     networkbsd: true
     gitlfs: true
     httpclientrestricted: true