diff --git a/.github/workflows/bench-reports.yml b/.github/workflows/bench-reports.yml
index 1d3f2844d6..cefc652fc3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/bench-reports.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/bench-reports.yml
@@ -9,8 +9,7 @@ env:
   PYTHON_VERSION: "3.11"
   RUST_TOOLCHAIN_VERSION: "1.80"
 
-jobs:
-  runBenchmark:
+jobs: runBenchmark:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     name: run benchmark
     permissions:
@@ -28,13 +27,10 @@ jobs:
       - name: setup cargo criterion
         run: cargo install cargo-criterion
       - name: run benching script
-        run: ./bench.sh
+        run: ./build.py --ci-bench
       - name: preserve bench artifacts
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
         with:
           name: benchmarks
-          path: |
-            target/criterion/**/*
-            week_ago.json
-            latest.json
+          path: *.json
 
diff --git a/bench.sh b/bench.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index e2cb6bf68b..0000000000
--- a/bench.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-branch="alex/benching"
-echo $(git rev-list --since="1 day ago" --pretty='format:%ad__%h' --date=short $branch | awk 'NR%2==0')
-for date_and_commit in $(git rev-list --since="1 week ago" --pretty='format:%ad__%h' --date=short $branch | awk 'NR%2==0')
-do
-  echo "benching commit" $date_and_commit
-  cargo criterion --message-format=json --history-id $date_and_commit > $date_and_commit.json
-done
-
diff --git a/build.py b/build.py
index ae188c9c65..8e96157e8f 100755
--- a/build.py
+++ b/build.py
@@ -68,6 +68,13 @@
     help="Build and run the integration tests (default is --no-integration-tests)",
 )
 
+parser.add_argument(
+        "--ci-bench",
+        action=argparse.BooleanOptionalAction,
+        default=False,
+        help="Run the benchmarking script that is run in CI (default is --no-ci-bench)",
+)
+
 args = parser.parse_args()
 
 if args.check_prereqs:
@@ -83,6 +90,7 @@
     and not args.play
     and not args.vscode
     and not args.jupyterlab
+    and not args.ci_bench
 )
 build_cli = build_all or args.cli
 build_pip = build_all or args.pip
@@ -92,6 +100,7 @@
 build_play = build_all or args.play
 build_vscode = build_all or args.vscode
 build_jupyterlab = build_all or args.jupyterlab
+ci_bench = args.ci_bench
 
 # JavaScript projects and eslint, prettier depend on npm_install
 # However the JupyterLab extension uses yarn in a separate workspace
@@ -291,6 +300,28 @@ def run_python_integration_tests(cwd, interpreter):
     subprocess.run(command_args, check=True, text=True, cwd=cwd)
 
 
+def run_ci_historic_benchmark():
+    branch = "alex/benching"
+    output = subprocess.check_output(
+        ["git", "rev-list", "--since=1 day ago", "--pretty=format:%ad__%h", "--date=short", branch]
+    ).decode("utf-8")
+    print('\n'.join([line for i, line in enumerate(output.split('\n')) if i % 2 == 1]))
+
+    output = subprocess.check_output(
+        ["git", "rev-list", "--since=1 week ago", "--pretty=format:%ad__%h", "--date=short", branch]
+    ).decode("utf-8")
+    date_and_commits = [line for i, line in enumerate(output.split('\n')) if i % 2 == 1]
+
+    for date_and_commit in date_and_commits:
+        print("benching commit", date_and_commit)
+        result = subprocess.run(
+            ["cargo", "criterion", "--message-format=json", "--history-id", date_and_commit],
+            capture_output=True,
+            text=True
+        )
+        with open(f"{date_and_commit}.json", "w") as f:
+            f.write(result.stdout)
+
 if build_pip:
     step_start("Building the pip package")
 
@@ -529,3 +560,8 @@ def run_python_integration_tests(cwd, interpreter):
     for test_project_dir in test_projects_directories:
         run_python_tests(test_project_dir, python_bin)
     step_end()
+
+if ci_bench:
+    step_start("Running CI benchmarking script")
+    run_ci_historic_benchmark()
+    step_end()