from random import random list_1 = [random() for _ in range(1000000)] list_2 = [random() for _ in range(1000000)] out = [x + y for (x, y) in zip(list_1, list_2)] out[:3] %timeit [x + y for (x, y) in zip(list_1, list_2)] import numpy as np arr_1 = np.array(list_1) arr_2 = np.array(list_2) type(list_1), type(arr_1) arr_1.shape arr_1.dtype sum_arr = arr_1 + arr_2 sum_arr[:3] %timeit arr_1 + arr_2