diff --git a/scripts/compare_seq_solvers.py b/scripts/compare_seq_solvers.py
index db2b9abd8..1f7cc9d9f 100644
--- a/scripts/compare_seq_solvers.py
+++ b/scripts/compare_seq_solvers.py
@@ -11,10 +11,12 @@ and reports timeouts, divergences, and summary statistics.
 """
 
 import argparse
+import random
 import re
 import subprocess
 import sys
 import time
+from collections import defaultdict
 from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor, as_completed
 from pathlib import Path
 
@@ -191,7 +193,11 @@ def main():
     parser.add_argument("path", help="Directory containing SMT-LIB2 files")
     parser.add_argument("--z3", required=True, metavar="PATH", help="Path to z3 binary")
     parser.add_argument("--ext", default=".smt2", help="File extension to search for (default: .smt2)")
-    parser.add_argument("--jobs", type=int, default=4, help="Parallel workers (default: 4)")
+    parser.add_argument("--jobs", type=int, default=4, metavar="N",
+                        help="Number of parallel worker threads (default: 4)")
+    parser.add_argument("--max-per-folder", type=int, default=None, metavar="N",
+                        help="Max SMT2 files to benchmark per subfolder; "
+                             "excess files are randomly sampled down to this limit")
     parser.add_argument("--timeout", type=int, default=DEFAULT_TIMEOUT, metavar="SEC",
                         help=f"Per-solver timeout in seconds (default: {DEFAULT_TIMEOUT})")
     parser.add_argument("--zipt", metavar="PATH", default=None,
@@ -215,6 +221,20 @@ def main():
         print(f"No {args.ext} files found under {root}", file=sys.stderr)
         sys.exit(1)
 
+    if args.max_per_folder is not None:
+        by_folder: dict[Path, list[Path]] = defaultdict(list)
+        for f in files:
+            by_folder[f.parent].append(f)
+        sampled: list[Path] = []
+        for folder_files in by_folder.values():
+            if len(folder_files) > args.max_per_folder:
+                sampled.extend(random.sample(folder_files, args.max_per_folder))
+            else:
+                sampled.extend(folder_files)
+        files = sorted(sampled)
+        print(f"Sampling: {len(files)} files selected "
+              f"(max {args.max_per_folder} per subfolder, {len(by_folder)} subfolder(s))")
+
     solvers_label = "nseq, seq"
     if args.parikh: solvers_label += ", nseq_p"
     if zipt_bin: solvers_label += ", zipt"
@@ -222,9 +242,10 @@ def main():
           f"Workers: {args.jobs}, timeout: {timeout_s}s\n")
 
     results = []
-    with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=args.jobs) as pool:
-        futures = {pool.submit(process_file, z3_bin, f, timeout_s, zipt_bin, args.parikh): f for f in files}
-        done = 0
+    pool = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=args.jobs)
+    futures = {pool.submit(process_file, z3_bin, f, timeout_s, zipt_bin, args.parikh): f for f in files}
+    done = 0
+    try:
         for fut in as_completed(futures):
             done += 1
             r = fut.result()
@@ -237,6 +258,12 @@ def main():
                 zipt_part = f"  zipt={r['zipt']:8s} ({r['t_zipt']:.1f}s)"
             print(f"[{done:4d}/{len(files)}] {r['category']:35s}  nseq={r['nseq']:8s} ({r['t_nseq']:.1f}s)  "
                   f"seq={r['seq']:8s} ({r['t_seq']:.1f}s){np_part}{zipt_part}  {r['file'].name}")
+    except KeyboardInterrupt:
+        print("\nInterrupted — cancelling pending tasks.", file=sys.stderr)
+        pool.shutdown(wait=False, cancel_futures=True)
+        sys.exit(130)
+    else:
+        pool.shutdown(wait=True)
 
     # ── Summary ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
     categories = {