diff --git a/.github/workflows/benchmarking.yml b/.github/workflows/benchmarking.yml
index e2f15d96db..8bf12c31b1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/benchmarking.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/benchmarking.yml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ on:
     #          │ │ ┌───────────── day of the month (1 - 31)
     #          │ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 - 12 or JAN-DEC)
     #          │ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of the week (0 - 6 or SUN-SAT)
-    - cron:  '0 3 * * *' # run once a day, timezone is utc
+    - cron:   '0 3 * * *' # run once a day, timezone is utc
 
   workflow_dispatch: # adds ability to run this manually
     inputs:
@@ -23,6 +23,21 @@ on:
         type: boolean
         description: 'Publish perf report. If not set, the report will be published only for the main branch'
         required: false
+      collect_olap_explain:
+        type: boolean
+        description: 'Collect EXPLAIN ANALYZE for OLAP queries. If not set, EXPLAIN ANALYZE will not be collected'
+        required: false
+        default: false
+      collect_pg_stat_statements:
+        type: boolean
+        description: 'Collect pg_stat_statements for OLAP queries. If not set, pg_stat_statements will not be collected'
+        required: false
+        default: false
+      run_AWS_RDS_AND_AURORA:
+        type: boolean
+        description: 'AWS-RDS and AWS-AURORA normally only run on Saturday. Set this to true to run them on every workflow_dispatch'
+        required: false
+        default: false
 
 defaults:
   run:
@@ -113,6 +128,8 @@ jobs:
     # - neon-captest-reuse: Reusing existing project
     # - rds-aurora: Aurora Postgres Serverless v2 with autoscaling from 0.5 to 2 ACUs
     # - rds-postgres: RDS Postgres db.m5.large instance (2 vCPU, 8 GiB) with gp3 EBS storage
+    env:
+      RUN_AWS_RDS_AND_AURORA: ${{ github.event.inputs.run_AWS_RDS_AND_AURORA || 'false' }}
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     outputs:
       pgbench-compare-matrix: ${{ steps.pgbench-compare-matrix.outputs.matrix }}
@@ -152,7 +169,7 @@ jobs:
           ]
         }'
 
-        if [ "$(date +%A)" = "Saturday" ]; then
+        if [ "$(date +%A)" = "Saturday" ] || [ ${RUN_AWS_RDS_AND_AURORA} = "true" ]; then
           matrix=$(echo "$matrix" | jq '.include += [{ "platform": "rds-postgres" },
                                                    { "platform": "rds-aurora"   }]')
         fi
@@ -171,9 +188,9 @@ jobs:
           ]
         }'
 
-        if [ "$(date +%A)" = "Saturday" ]; then
+        if [ "$(date +%A)" = "Saturday" ] || [ ${RUN_AWS_RDS_AND_AURORA} = "true" ]; then
           matrix=$(echo "$matrix" | jq '.include += [{ "platform": "rds-postgres", "scale": "10" },
-                                                   { "platform": "rds-aurora",   "scale": "10" }]')
+                                                    { "platform": "rds-aurora",   "scale": "10" }]')
         fi
 
         echo "matrix=$(echo "$matrix" | jq --compact-output '.')" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
@@ -337,6 +354,8 @@ jobs:
       POSTGRES_DISTRIB_DIR: /tmp/neon/pg_install
       DEFAULT_PG_VERSION: 14
       TEST_OUTPUT: /tmp/test_output
+      TEST_OLAP_COLLECT_EXPLAIN: ${{ github.event.inputs.collect_olap_explain }}
+      TEST_OLAP_COLLECT_PG_STAT_STATEMENTS: ${{ github.event.inputs.collect_pg_stat_statements }}
       BUILD_TYPE: remote
       SAVE_PERF_REPORT: ${{ github.event.inputs.save_perf_report || ( github.ref_name == 'main' ) }}
       PLATFORM: ${{ matrix.platform }}
@@ -399,6 +418,8 @@ jobs:
       env:
         VIP_VAP_ACCESS_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.VIP_VAP_ACCESS_TOKEN }}"
         PERF_TEST_RESULT_CONNSTR: "${{ secrets.PERF_TEST_RESULT_CONNSTR }}"
+        TEST_OLAP_COLLECT_EXPLAIN: ${{ github.event.inputs.collect_olap_explain || 'false' }}
+        TEST_OLAP_COLLECT_PG_STAT_STATEMENTS: ${{ github.event.inputs.collect_pg_stat_statements || 'false' }}
         BENCHMARK_CONNSTR: ${{ steps.set-up-connstr.outputs.connstr }}
         TEST_OLAP_SCALE: 10
 
diff --git a/test_runner/performance/test_perf_olap.py b/test_runner/performance/test_perf_olap.py
index 0f7615f7ed..1de7e95bbe 100644
--- a/test_runner/performance/test_perf_olap.py
+++ b/test_runner/performance/test_perf_olap.py
@@ -17,6 +17,27 @@ class LabelledQuery:
     query: str
 
 
+# This must run before all tests in this module
+# create extension pg_stat_statements if it does not exist
+# and TEST_OLAP_COLLECT_PG_STAT_STATEMENTS is set to true (default false)
+# Theoretically this could be in a module or session scope fixture,
+# however the code depends on other fixtures that have function scope
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    os.getenv("TEST_OLAP_COLLECT_PG_STAT_STATEMENTS", "false").lower() == "false",
+    reason="Skipping - Creating extension pg_stat_statements",
+)
+@pytest.mark.remote_cluster
+def test_clickbench_create_pg_stat_statements(remote_compare: RemoteCompare):
+    log.info("Creating extension pg_stat_statements")
+    query = LabelledQuery(
+        "Q_CREATE_EXTENSION", r"CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_stat_statements;"
+    )
+    run_psql(remote_compare, query, times=1, explain=False)
+    log.info("Reset pg_stat_statements")
+    query = LabelledQuery("Q_RESET", r"SELECT pg_stat_statements_reset();")
+    run_psql(remote_compare, query, times=1, explain=False)
+
+
 # A list of queries to run.
 # Please do not alter the label for the query, as it is used to identify it.
 # Labels for ClickBench queries match the labels in ClickBench reports
@@ -78,6 +99,8 @@ QUERIES: Tuple[LabelledQuery, ...] = (
     # fmt: on
 )
 
+EXPLAIN_STRING: str = "EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, VERBOSE, BUFFERS, COSTS, SETTINGS, FORMAT JSON)"
+
 
 def get_scale() -> List[str]:
     # We parametrize each tpc-h and clickbench test with scale
@@ -88,7 +111,10 @@ def get_scale() -> List[str]:
     return [scale]
 
 
-def run_psql(env: RemoteCompare, labelled_query: LabelledQuery, times: int) -> None:
+# run the query times times plus once with EXPLAIN VERBOSE if explain is requestd
+def run_psql(
+    env: RemoteCompare, labelled_query: LabelledQuery, times: int, explain: bool = False
+) -> None:
     # prepare connstr:
     # - cut out password from connstr to pass it via env
     # - add options to connstr
@@ -108,6 +134,13 @@ def run_psql(env: RemoteCompare, labelled_query: LabelledQuery, times: int) -> N
         log.info(f"Run {run}/{times}")
         with env.zenbenchmark.record_duration(f"{label}/{run}"):
             env.pg_bin.run_capture(["psql", connstr, "-c", query], env=environ)
+    if explain:
+        log.info(f"Explaining query {label}")
+        run += 1
+        with env.zenbenchmark.record_duration(f"{label}/EXPLAIN"):
+            env.pg_bin.run_capture(
+                ["psql", connstr, "-c", f"{EXPLAIN_STRING} {query}"], env=environ
+            )
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("scale", get_scale())
@@ -120,8 +153,9 @@ def test_clickbench(query: LabelledQuery, remote_compare: RemoteCompare, scale:
     Based on https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickBench/tree/c00135ca5b6a0d86fedcdbf998fdaa8ed85c1c3b/aurora-postgresql
     The DB prepared manually in advance
     """
+    explain: bool = os.getenv("TEST_OLAP_COLLECT_EXPLAIN", "false").lower() == "true"
 
-    run_psql(remote_compare, query, times=3)
+    run_psql(remote_compare, query, times=3, explain=explain)
 
 
 def tpch_queuies() -> Tuple[ParameterSet, ...]:
@@ -195,3 +229,16 @@ def test_user_examples(remote_compare: RemoteCompare):
         """,
     )
     run_psql(remote_compare, query, times=3)
+
+
+# This must run after all tests in this module
+# Collect pg_stat_statements after running the tests if TEST_OLAP_COLLECT_PG_STAT_STATEMENTS is set to true (default false)
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    os.getenv("TEST_OLAP_COLLECT_PG_STAT_STATEMENTS", "false").lower() == "false",
+    reason="Skipping - Collecting pg_stat_statements",
+)
+@pytest.mark.remote_cluster
+def test_clickbench_collect_pg_stat_statements(remote_compare: RemoteCompare):
+    log.info("Collecting pg_stat_statements")
+    query = LabelledQuery("Q_COLLECT_PG_STAT_STATEMENTS", r"SELECT * from pg_stat_statements;")
+    run_psql(remote_compare, query, times=1, explain=False)