Chinilla
System design simulator that runs your architecture before you write code
If you need to reason about topology, throughput, and failure modes before coding, Chinilla is the fastest way to get a live, actionable diagram. The free tier is genuinely useful for learning and light prototyping; Pro is worth it for interview prep and team collaboration. Skip it if you need production load testing or wire-level network simulation.
- System design interview prep: load a problem, build a design, see if it holds under load
- Learning architecture: watch packets flow through queues, retries, and circuit breakers in real time
- Whiteboarding new services: validate topology and capacity before writing code
- Teaching and content creation: embed live diagrams in docs, READMEs, and lessons
- Production load testing — use k6, Gatling, or Locust instead
- Kubernetes or cloud deployment views — use Lens, k9s, or Cloudcraft
- Observability or APM — use Datadog, New Relic, or Grafana
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Skip Chinilla if you need production-grade load testing, real traffic replay, or low-level network simulation with jitter and GC modeling.
Pro costs $12/mo per user, but the free tier already includes unlimited projects and all core features.
Chinilla's freemium model is ideal for individual learners and interview preppers — the free tier is genuinely useful. Pro at $12/mo is cheaper than many diagramming tools' paid plans. For teams, the lack of a Team plan with admin controls might push you toward a collaboration tool like Miro or Lucidchart.
In short
Chinilla — System design simulator that runs your architecture before you write code. Best for System design interview prep: load a problem, build a design, see if it holds under load, Learning architecture: watch packets flow through queues, retries, and circuit breakers in real time, Whiteboarding new services: validate topology and capacity before writing code. Free to start; paid plans from $12/mo.
What's new in Chinilla
Checked 14 days agoAcross the latest 2 updates: 2 news mentions.
How to embed a live, interactive architecture diagram in your GitHub README
Workaround for embedding live architecture diagrams in GitHub READMEs despite iframe restrictions.
I Simulated the NeurIPS Review Pipeline. Here's What Happens to Your Paper.
Reverse-engineered NeurIPS 2026 review pipeline simulation showing 100-day paper review process.
In users’ own words
“Chinilla blockchain has now launched it's vanillanet and is now live. Download the client today and start farming! As part of this launch, we vow not to commit our full farm (50 PiB) to vanillanet for 30 days to allow other farmers the opportunity to earn some coin. We look forward to serving our community and growing this project. Website: [https://chinilla.com/](https://chinilla.com/) Github:…”
Real posts from independent users, linked to the source — not testimonials we collected.
Viability Score
How likely is Chinilla to still be operational in 12 months? Based on 4 signals — momentum (how recently it shipped), wrapper dependency, revenue model, and web presence.
Last calculated: July 2026
How we score →Key Features
- 7 universal building blocks: Person, Step, Storage, Decision, Trigger, Tool, Channel
- 8 programmable behaviors: passthrough, filter, split, delay, retry, circuitbreaker, batch, replicate
- Universal queueing on any component with configurable capacity
- Deterministic discrete-event simulation with reproducible seed
- Timeline viewer to scrub and inspect packet flow per step
- Monte Carlo analysis with 95% confidence intervals
- Parameter sweep for design space exploration
- Stability scoring and baseline comparison
- Live collaboration with cursors (Pro)
- Interview mode with 8 hand-authored rubrics (Pro)
- AI design assistant powered by Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Pro)
- Code-to-diagram from GitHub URL supporting 15+ languages (Pro)
- Export to PNG, SVG, animated GIF (Pro), Mermaid, JSON
- Publish live URL and embed iframe in docs/README
- Mobile PWA with touch-optimized canvas
About Chinilla
Chinilla is a browser-based discrete-event simulator for system design. You build architectures from 7 universal component types—Person, Step, Storage, Decision, Trigger, Tool, Channel—and attach 8 programmable behaviors (retry, circuit breaker, rate limit, batch, replicate, filter, split, delay) plus universal queueing on any component. The diagram is alive: packets flow in real time, bottlenecks appear, and you see where the design breaks under load. Its deterministic engine means the same design with the same seed yields identical results every time, making it ideal for debugging and before/after comparisons. The free tier includes cloud projects, full simulation, all components and behaviors, templates, stability scoring with Monte Carlo runs and parameter sweeps, timeline views, and PNG/SVG/Mermaid export. Pro ($12/mo) unlocks live collaboration with cursors, interview mode with 8 hand-authored rubrics, AI design partner (Claude Sonnet 4.6), code-to-diagram from GitHub URLs (15+ languages), animated GIF export, and publishable live URLs with embeddable iframes. Chinilla is built for system design interview prep, learning architecture, whiteboarding new services, teaching, and research prototyping. It is not a production load tester—use k6, Gatling, or Locust for that—nor a wire-level network simulator. Compared to static diagram tools like Excalidraw or diagrams.net, Chinilla adds runtime behavior; compared to full-scale simulators like AnyLogic or Arena, it trades agent-modeling depth for instant browser-based setup and zero-install.
Behind the Verdict
Chinilla occupies a sweet spot that few tools touch—a whiteboard that actually runs. Static diagram tools (Excalidraw, Draw.io, Lucidchart) give you shapes but no behavior; you guess where bottlenecks form. Production load testers (k6, Gatling) require a running service and a test script. Chinilla sits between: you sketch a topology, define capacity and retry logic, and watch packets flow. The deterministic engine is a killer feature for learning—you can debug a design and get reproducible results. The component set is deliberately small (7 primitives), but composition with 8 behaviors and universal queueing lets you model complex patterns like retry storms, backpressure cascades, and rate-limit drops. The free tier is generous: all components, all behaviors, Monte Carlo analysis, parameter sweeps, timeline viewer, and exports (PNG, SVG, Mermaid). You only hit a paywall for collaboration, interview mode, AI assistant, code-to-diagram, and animated GIF export. At $12/month, Pro is affordable for serious interview prep or team use. We'd reach for Chinilla when prepping for a system design interview—load a problem (e.g., design a URL shortener), build the topology, run it, and see where the queue backs up. It's also great for teaching: you can embed a live diagram in a blog post or README (via iframe or badge) that updates as you edit. Where it bites: you can't model jitter, GC pauses, or kernel scheduling—so treat results as directional, not precise. The simulation is single-process; large agent-based models with 10k+ agents would bog down. And there's no API—you can't script runs or integrate into CI/CD. For architecture brainstorming and interview prep, Chinilla is a clear upgrade over static drawing tools. For production capacity planning, stick with k6 or AnyLogic.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Chinilla actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You select the 'URL shortener' template, drop components, wire them, then run simulation to see where queues build up under 10K QPS. Use interview mode (Pro) to practice with rubric feedback.
Outcome: Identify that the database write path is the bottleneck, iterate by adding a cache layer, re-run, and confirm improved throughput.
You sketch a service mesh with 5 services, attach circuit breakers and retries, then run a stress simulation with 1000 packets to see failure cascades.
Outcome: Spot a retry storm between two services, add a rate limiter, and validate the design before writing any code.
Use Cases
- Design and simulate a URL shortener to validate throughput and bottleneck placement.
- Practice system design interviews with built-in rubrics and live feedback.
- Teach distributed systems by running packet-level simulations of retries and circuit breakers.
- Whiteboard a microservice mesh topology and stress-test it under peak load before coding.
- Rapidly prototype an ER triage workflow or coffee shop order flow with measurable metrics.
- Generate deterministic Monte Carlo analyses for academic research on system stability.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-07-17
Limitations
- The simulation is deterministic and based on user-specified parameters, not real traffic.
- It does not model low-level system details like garbage collection, kernel scheduling, or network jitter.
- The free tier covers core functionality, while live 1-on-1 collaboration and AI design partner are Pro features.
as of 2026-07-03
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Chinilla tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free
$0/mo
Ideal for
Individual learners, interview preppers, and hobbyists exploring system design with unlimited projects and all core simulation features.
What this tier adds
Free entry point: unlimited cloud projects, all component types and behaviors, Monte Carlo analysis, parameter sweep, export to PNG/SVG/Mermaid/JSON. No collaboration, no AI assistant, no animated GIF.
Pro
$12/mo
Ideal for
Active interview candidates needing live mock rubrics, teams wanting real-time collaboration, and content creators needing animated GIFs and publish/embed.
What this tier adds
Adds live collaboration with cursors, interview mode with 8 rubrics, AI design suggestions via Claude Sonnet 4.6, code-to-diagram from GitHub, animated GIF export, publish live URL, and embed iframe.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Chinilla's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Chinilla's freemium model is ideal for individual learners and interview preppers — the free tier is genuinely useful. Pro at $12/mo is cheaper than many diagramming tools' paid plans. For teams, the lack of a Team plan with admin controls might push you toward a collaboration tool like Miro or Lucidchart.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Chinilla — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
For a student: under 5 minutes to sign up, open a template (e.g., URL shortener), and start simulating. For an architect building a custom design: 10-15 minutes to drop components, wire them, configure behaviors, and run a first simulation.
Switching to or from Chinilla
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Excalidraw or Draw.io: export your diagram as Mermaid, then import into Chinilla (Mermaid import not directly supported, but you can rebuild using templates).
- ↗To Excalidraw: export Chinilla diagram as SVG and import into Excalidraw.
- ↗To Mermaid: export Chinilla as Mermaid for Markdown documentation.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Official links
Tools that pair well with Chinilla
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Chinilla, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
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