diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cb9c454..cd409d9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -309,13 +309,23 @@
     $ adb shell /data/nativetest/bionic-benchmarks/bionic-benchmarks
     $ adb shell /data/nativetest64/bionic-benchmarks/bionic-benchmarks
 
+When operated without specifying an xml file, the default is to use the xml
+file called full.xml found in the directory `suites/` bound in the same directory
+as the bionic-benchmarks executable.
+
+To use a different xml file, use the `--bionic_xml=FILE.XML` option. By default, this
+option searches for the xml file in the `suites/` directory. If it doesn't exist
+in that directory then the file will be found as relative to the current
+directory. If the option specifies the full path to an xml file such as
+`/data/nativetest/suites/example.xml`, it will be used as is.
+
 You can use `--benchmark_filter=getpid` to just run benchmarks with "getpid"
 in their name.
 
 ### Host benchmarks
 
-See the "Host tests" section of "Running the tests" above.
-
+See the "Host tests" section of "Running the tests" above. The default for
+host tests is to use the `host.xml` file in the suites directory instead of `full.xml`.
 
 Attaching GDB to the tests
 --------------------------
diff --git a/benchmarks/README.md b/benchmarks/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6501839
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmarks/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+Bionic Benchmarks
+=================
+Bionic benchmarks is a command line tool for measuring the runtimes of libc functions. It is built
+on top of [Google benchmarks](https://github.com/google/benchmark) with some additions to organize
+tests into suites.
+
+Instructions for running these can be found in the platform_bionic README.
+
+## Suites
+
+Suites are stored in the `suites/` directory and can be chosen with the command line flag
+'--bionic_xml'. When operated without specifying an xml file, the default is to use the
+file called `full.xml` found in the directory `suites/` bound in the same directory
+as the bionic-benchmarks executable.
+
+To use a different xml file, use the `--bionic_xml=FILE.XML` option. By default, this
+option searches for the xml file in the `suites/` directory. If it doesn't exist
+in that directory then the file will be found as relative to the current
+directory. If the option specifies the full path to an xml file such as
+`/data/nativetest/suites/example.xml`, it will be used as is.
+
+If no xml file is specified through the command-line option, the default is to use `suites/full.xml`.
+However, for the host bionic benchmarks (bionic-benchmarks-glibc), the default
+is to use `suites/host.xml`.
+
+### Format
+
+The format for a benchmark is:
+
+```
+<fn>
+    <name>BM_sample_benchmark</name>
+    <cpu><optional_cpu_to_lock></cpu>
+    <iterations><optional_iterations_to_run></iterations>
+    <args><space separated list of function args|shorthand></args>
+</fn>
+```
+
+xml-specified values for iterations and cpu take precedence over those specified via command line
+(via '--bionic_iterations' and '--bionic_cpu', respectively.)
+
+To make small changes in runs, you can also schedule benchmarks by passing in their name and a
+space-separated list of arguments via the 'bionic_extra' command line flag, e.g.
+'--bionic_extra="BM_string_memcpy AT_COMMON_SIZES"' or '--bionic_extra="BM_string_memcmp 32 8 8"'
+
+Note that benchmarks will run normally if extra arguments are passed in, and it will fail
+with a segfault if too few are passed in.
+
+### Shorthand
+
+For the sake of brevity, multiple runs can be scheduled in one xml element by putting one of the
+following in the args field:
+
+    NUM_PROPS
+    MATH_COMMON
+    AT_ALIGNED_<ONE|TWO>BUF
+    AT_<any power of two between 2 and 16384>_ALIGNED_<ONE|TWO>BUF
+    AT_COMMON_SIZES
+
+Definitions for these can be found in bionic_benchmarks.cpp, and example usages can be found in
+the suites directory.
+
+### Unit Tests
+
+Bionic benchmarks also has its own set of unit tests, which can be run from the binary in
+`/data/nativetest[64]/bionic-benchmarks-tests`
diff --git a/benchmarks/run-on-host.sh b/benchmarks/run-on-host.sh
index bc63628..af96b27 100755
--- a/benchmarks/run-on-host.sh
+++ b/benchmarks/run-on-host.sh
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
     )
     exit 0
 elif [ "$1" != 32 -a "$1" != 64 ]; then
-    echo "Usage: $0 [ 32 | 64 | glibc ] [gtest flags]"
+    echo "Usage: $0 [ 32 | 64 | glibc ] [benchmark flags]"
     exit 1
 fi