Benson is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 4,754. The village is about a mile and a half (2.4 km) north of Wallingford, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills and by the confluence of a chalk stream, Ewelme Brook, and the River Thames, next to Benson Lock.

Being on the northern and eastern banks of the Thames, Benson was unaffected by the 1974 boundary changes between Berkshire and Oxfordshire. The village is built on river silts and gravel, just above surrounding marshy land that gives the nearby settlements of Preston Crowmarsh, Crowmarsh Gifford, and Rokemarsh their names. The fertile land which surrounds the village meant that farming was the main source of employment until the 20th century.

The brook that runs through the village is home to trout and to the invasive American signal crayfish.

The toponym was originally Villam Regiam, "the King's Town". Later it was Bensington, from the Old English Bænesingtun meaning "farmstead of the people of [a man called] Benesa". The village is reputedly the site of the Battle of Bensington. The present name, Benson, can be found early in the 19th century, but Bensington continued in use, at least on formal documents, until well into the second half of the century. The 1866 Working Agreement, made by the GWR for operating the Wallingford and Watlington Railway, used the older form.

The village was taken over in 573 CE by the West Saxons, who established a royal vill. In 775 the West Saxons surrendered this to Offa of Mercia, who sought a stronghold on the eastern bank of the Thames.

At the time of the 1086 Domesday Book, Benson was "the richest royal manor in Oxfordshire". The manor boundaries extended from the borders of Stadhampton in the north to include Henley in the south-east and were probably set long before the Conquest. Domesday states that manor was worth £85 a year although comprising only 11.75 hides, whereas the Bishop of Lincoln's 90 hides at Dorchester were valued at only £30. Benson itself was clearly the most valuable part of the manor. The map shows that Benson parish is only about one tenth of the area of Benson manor, but the Domesday Book values the parish alone at £30, compared with £5 for the neighbouring parish of Berrick.