The concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to parallelism for virtual network functions (“VNFs”) in service function chains (“SFCs”). According to one aspect, a packet processing system can receive instructions to process, in parallel, at least a portion of a plurality of data packets associated with an SFC including a plurality of VNFs. The system can create a copy of at least the portion of the data packets. The system can send the copy of at least the portion of the data packets to at least two VNFs. The at least two VNFs can process, in parallel, the copy of at least the portion of the data packets. The system can receive, from the at least two VNFs, processed packets including the copy of at least the portion of the data packets and processed, in parallel, by the at least two VNFs. The system can combine the processed packets.