In []: XS = range(1000000)
In []: %timeit list(chain([0], accumulate(XS)))
78.5 ms ± 648 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10 loops each)
In []: %timeit [0] + list(accumulate(XS))
89.2 ms ± 1.3 ms per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10 loops each)