diff --git a/keys/wordcodec_test.go b/keys/wordcodec_test.go
index 3bdec110f..1ae97d8a7 100644
--- a/keys/wordcodec_test.go
+++ b/keys/wordcodec_test.go
@@ -178,33 +178,3 @@ func TestCheckTypoDetection(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
-
-func warmupCodec(bank string) *WordCodec {
-	codec, err := LoadCodec(bank)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
-	_, err = codec.GetIndex(codec.words[123])
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
-	return codec
-}
-
-func BenchmarkWordGeneration(b *testing.B) {
-	// banks := []string{"english", "spanish", "japanese", "chinese_simplified"}
-	bank := "english"
-
-	codec := warmupCodec(bank)
-	b.ResetTimer()
-
-	numBytes := 32
-	data := cmn.RandBytes(numBytes)
-
-	for i := 1; i <= b.N; i++ {
-		_, err := codec.BytesToWords(data)
-		if err != nil {
-			panic(err)
-		}
-	}
-}
diff --git a/keys/wordcodecbench_test.go b/keys/wordcodecbench_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e100a443a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/keys/wordcodecbench_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+package keys
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/tmlibs/common"
+)
+
+func warmupCodec(bank string) *WordCodec {
+	codec, err := LoadCodec(bank)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+	_, err = codec.GetIndex(codec.words[123])
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+	return codec
+}
+
+func BenchmarkCodec(b *testing.B) {
+	banks := []string{"english", "spanish", "japanese", "chinese_simplified"}
+
+	for _, bank := range banks {
+		b.Run(bank, func(sub *testing.B) {
+			codec := warmupCodec(bank)
+			sub.ResetTimer()
+			benchSuite(sub, codec)
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func benchSuite(b *testing.B, codec *WordCodec) {
+	b.Run("to_words", func(sub *testing.B) {
+		benchMakeWords(sub, codec)
+	})
+	b.Run("to_bytes", func(sub *testing.B) {
+		benchParseWords(sub, codec)
+	})
+}
+
+func benchMakeWords(b *testing.B, codec *WordCodec) {
+	numBytes := 32
+	data := cmn.RandBytes(numBytes)
+	for i := 1; i <= b.N; i++ {
+		_, err := codec.BytesToWords(data)
+		if err != nil {
+			panic(err)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func benchParseWords(b *testing.B, codec *WordCodec) {
+	// generate a valid test string to parse
+	numBytes := 32
+	data := cmn.RandBytes(numBytes)
+	words, err := codec.BytesToWords(data)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+
+	for i := 1; i <= b.N; i++ {
+		_, err := codec.WordsToBytes(words)
+		if err != nil {
+			panic(err)
+		}
+	}
+}