diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 48b29e61f..8fcebd963 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ Django>=1.4.11
 
 # Test requirements
 pytest-django==2.6
+pytest-xdist==1.11
 pytest==2.5.2
 pytest-cov==1.6
 flake8==2.2.2
diff --git a/runtests.py b/runtests.py
index abf15a623..b13f2ecce 100755
--- a/runtests.py
+++ b/runtests.py
@@ -5,11 +5,12 @@ import pytest
 import sys
 import os
 import subprocess
+import multiprocessing
 
 
 PYTEST_ARGS = {
     'default': ['tests'],
-    'fast': ['tests', '-q'],
+    'fast': ['tests', '-q', '-n %d' % multiprocessing.cpu_count()],
 }
 
 FLAKE8_ARGS = ['rest_framework', 'tests', '--ignore=E501']
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 933ee560e..d80fa98c3 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ deps =
        {py26,py27}-django{14,15}: django-oauth2-provider==0.2.3
        {py26,py27}-django16: django-oauth2-provider==0.2.4
        pytest-django==2.6.1
+       pytest-xdist==1.11
        django-filter==0.7
        defusedxml==0.3
        markdown>=2.1.0