diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index 9987f6f8d3..837d769d74 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -32,5 +32,6 @@ jobs:
       with:
         image: ghcr.io/osbuild/osbuild-ci:latest-202308241910
         run: |
-          TEST_CATEGORY="${{ matrix.test }}" \
+          # XXX: or use "auto" here?
+          TEST_CATEGORY="${{ matrix.test }}" TEST_NUM_WORKERS=4 \
           tox -e "${{ matrix.environment }}"
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 30b1b3b726..e8888be09d 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ labels =
 description = "run osbuild unit tests"
 deps =
     pytest
+    pytest-xdist
     jsonschema
     mako
     iniparse
@@ -26,7 +27,7 @@ passenv =
     TEST_CATEGORY
 
 commands =
-    bash -c 'python -m pytest --pyargs --rootdir=. {env:TEST_CATEGORY}'
+    bash -c 'python -m pytest --pyargs --rootdir=. {env:TEST_CATEGORY} {env:TEST_NUM_WORKERS}'
 
 allowlist_externals =
     bash