diff --git a/analytics/consumer.py b/analytics/consumer.py
index ae6e3c92..1381be7d 100644
--- a/analytics/consumer.py
+++ b/analytics/consumer.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import logging
 from threading import Thread
+from multiprocessing.pool import Pool
 import monotonic
 import backoff
 import json
@@ -19,6 +20,25 @@
 BATCH_SIZE_LIMIT = 475000
 
 
+def request(batch, write_key, host, gzip, timeout, retries):
+    """Attempt to upload the batch and retry before raising an error """
+
+    def fatal_exception(exc):
+        if isinstance(exc, APIError):
+            # retry on server errors and client errors with 429 status code (rate limited),
+            # don't retry on other client errors
+            return (400 <= exc.status < 500) and exc.status != 429
+        else:
+            # retry on all other errors (eg. network)
+            return False
+
+    @backoff.on_exception(backoff.expo, Exception, max_tries=retries + 1, giveup=fatal_exception)
+    def send_request():
+        post(write_key, host, gzip=gzip, timeout=timeout, batch=batch)
+
+    send_request()
+
+
 class Consumer(Thread):
     """Consumes the messages from the client's queue."""
     log = logging.getLogger('segment')
@@ -42,6 +62,7 @@ def __init__(self, queue, write_key, upload_size=100, host=None, on_error=None,
         self.running = True
         self.retries = retries
         self.timeout = timeout
+        self.pool = Pool(32)
 
     def run(self):
         """Runs the consumer."""
@@ -49,6 +70,8 @@ def run(self):
         while self.running:
             self.upload()
 
+        self.pool.close()
+        self.pool.join()
         self.log.debug('consumer exited.')
 
     def pause(self):
@@ -56,25 +79,31 @@ def pause(self):
         self.running = False
 
     def upload(self):
-        """Upload the next batch of items, return whether successful."""
-        success = False
+        """Asynchronously upload the next batch of items."""
         batch = self.next()
-        if len(batch) == 0:
-            return False
+        length = len(batch)
+        if length == 0:
+            return
 
-        try:
-            self.request(batch)
-            success = True
-        except Exception as e:
+        def on_success(x):
+            done()
+
+        def on_error(e):
             self.log.error('error uploading: %s', e)
-            success = False
             if self.on_error:
                 self.on_error(e, batch)
-        finally:
-            # mark items as acknowledged from queue
-            for item in batch:
+            done()
+
+        def done():
+            for i in range(length):
                 self.queue.task_done()
-            return success
+
+        self.pool.apply_async(
+            request,
+            args=[batch, self.write_key, self.host, self.gzip, self.timeout, self.retries],
+            callback=on_success,
+            error_callback=on_error
+        )
 
     def next(self):
         """Return the next batch of items to upload."""
@@ -103,21 +132,3 @@ def next(self):
                 break
 
         return items
-
-    def request(self, batch):
-        """Attempt to upload the batch and retry before raising an error """
-
-        def fatal_exception(exc):
-            if isinstance(exc, APIError):
-                # retry on server errors and client errors with 429 status code (rate limited),
-                # don't retry on other client errors
-                return (400 <= exc.status < 500) and exc.status != 429
-            else:
-                # retry on all other errors (eg. network)
-                return False
-
-        @backoff.on_exception(backoff.expo, Exception, max_tries=self.retries + 1, giveup=fatal_exception)
-        def send_request():
-            post(self.write_key, self.host, gzip=self.gzip, timeout=self.timeout, batch=batch)
-
-        send_request()
diff --git a/test.py b/test.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e29270ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+import math
+import sys
+import os
+import time
+import uuid
+from analytics import Client
+
+def on_error(error, items):
+    print("An error occurred:", error)
+
+writeKey = os.getenv('writeKey', None)
+events = os.getenv('events', 500000)
+
+assert writeKey is not None, "Please configure a write key using the writeKey environment variable"
+
+print(f'Sending {events} events to write key "{writeKey}"')
+
+analytics = Client(
+    writeKey,
+    debug=True,
+    on_error=on_error,
+    max_queue_size=math.inf,
+    upload_size=math.inf,
+    upload_interval=1
+)
+
+start = time.time()
+
+for it in range(events):
+    sys.stdout.write(f"\rProgress: {round(it / events * 100, 1)}%")
+    analytics.track('test', f'Iterated-{it}', {
+        'plan': it
+    })
+
+print()
+print('Shutting down..')
+analytics.shutdown()
+
+elapsed = time.time() - start
+
+print(f'elapsed: {elapsed} seconds')
+print(f'{round(events / elapsed)}rps average')
\ No newline at end of file