diff --git a/internal/database/totals_test.go b/internal/database/totals_test.go
index 253be5e..12f8720 100644
--- a/internal/database/totals_test.go
+++ b/internal/database/totals_test.go
@@ -102,6 +102,13 @@ func TestWebhookDBManager_TotalsSurviveReopen(t *testing.T) {
 // seedExpiredEvents stores count events created at the given time,
 // each with a delivered delivery to one target and a failed delivery
 // to the other, and one attempt for each delivery.
+//
+// It and seedBareEvents insert 50 rows per statement, not more. The
+// SQLite driver looks up each parameter's value by scanning the
+// statement's arguments from the first until it reaches that
+// parameter's, so the time to bind a statement grows with the square of
+// its parameter count: at 500 rows, several thousand parameters, the
+// seeding took most of these tests' time under -race.
 func seedExpiredEvents(
 	t *testing.T,
 	db *gorm.DB,
@@ -138,8 +145,8 @@ func seedExpiredEvents(
 		)
 	}
 
-	require.NoError(t, db.CreateInBatches(events, 500).Error)
-	require.NoError(t, db.CreateInBatches(deliveries, 500).Error)
+	require.NoError(t, db.CreateInBatches(events, 50).Error)
+	require.NoError(t, db.CreateInBatches(deliveries, 50).Error)
 
 	results := make([]database.DeliveryResult, len(deliveries))
 	for i := range deliveries {
@@ -148,7 +155,7 @@ func seedExpiredEvents(
 		}
 	}
 
-	require.NoError(t, db.CreateInBatches(results, 500).Error)
+	require.NoError(t, db.CreateInBatches(results, 50).Error)
 }
 
 // seedBareEvents stores count events created at the given time, with
@@ -172,7 +179,7 @@ func seedBareEvents(
 		events[i].CreatedAt = createdAt
 	}
 
-	require.NoError(t, db.CreateInBatches(events, 500).Error)
+	require.NoError(t, db.CreateInBatches(events, 50).Error)
 }
 
 // TestRetentionReaper_PrunesMoreThanOneBatch verifies that a prune
diff --git a/script/test b/script/test
index 5aa6d49..9ba4a8c 100755
--- a/script/test
+++ b/script/test
@@ -27,7 +27,11 @@
 # Those figures predate tests hashing the admin password at 1 MB instead of
 # 64 MB (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/webhooker/pulls/404). After that change, in
 # a cache-defeated build at host load 44-109 (2026-10-02), internal/handlers
-# took 8.5s and the slowest package was internal/database at 15.8s.
+# took 8.5s and the slowest package was internal/database at 15.8s. Once its
+# retention tests seeded 50 rows per insert instead of 500
+# (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/webhooker/issues/198), internal/database took
+# 7.3s and the slowest package was internal/handlers at 8.1s to 10.0s, at host
+# load 25-48 (2026-10-02).
 #
 # -p 4 -parallel 8 keep the run under 2 GB of memory: at most four test
 # binaries build or run at once, each with at most eight parallel tests. Under