The State of Web Vitals

LCP discovery

How the browser found the LCP resource: HTML, CSS, JS, preload, or an early-hints header.

Field data PhoneDesktopAll Scope All sites Q2 2026 edition · All devices field outcomes
Metric LCP INP CLS
1

At a glance the headline numbers for LCP discovery

How the browser found the LCP resource: HTML, CSS, JS, preload, or an early-hints header.

6
Categories
176,552 sites
69.2%
Top share
html
87ms
Top INP
Median for html

The browser finds 69.2% of LCP images straight in the HTML. 0.8% hide behind JavaScript.

The State of Web Vitals · Q2 2026 · 189,915 sites · all devices field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
2

LCP discovery who uses what, and how fast each group loads

Median INP
0
100ms
200ms
300ms
400ms
500ms
header78ms0% of sites
css86ms28% of sites
html87ms69% of sites
js88ms1% of sites
preload96ms2% of sites
103109ms0% of sites
VariantShare of sitesMedian
header 370 sites
0%
78ms
css 48,623 sites
28%
86ms
html 122,164 sites
69%
87ms
js 1,353 sites
1%
88ms
preload 4,020 sites
2%
96ms
103 22 sites
0%
109ms

Little daylight between the groups: every variant sits near 78ms median INP. computed

The State of Web Vitals · Q2 2026 · 189,915 sites · all devices field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
3

Passing INP per LCP discovery which group passes the INP most often

VariantSitesPassing INPINP
Header 0.2% 370 98% 78ms
Css 27.5% 48,623 96% 86ms
103 0% 22 96% 109ms
Html 69.2% 122,164 94% 87ms
Preload 2.3% 4,020 94% 96ms
Js 0.8% 1,353 94% 88ms
Good Needs Improvement Poor Sorted best-passing first · median colored by its own rating · pass = good INP (200ms at p75) · one value per site

No variant stands out: pass rates sit between 94% and 98%. computed

The State of Web Vitals · Q2 2026 · 189,915 sites · all devices field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
4

Why this matters for the Core Web Vitals, and where to start fixing it

The browser can only download what it has discovered, and the LCP's load delay is mostly discovery time. An image in the HTML markup is found by the preload scanner in the first bytes of the document. A CSS background image stays invisible until the stylesheet downloads and applies. An image injected by JavaScript stays invisible until that script downloads, parses and runs.

That order is the fix list. Get the LCP image into the markup, or preload it when it cannot be. Discovery through JavaScript is the slowest possible path for the most important pixels on the page.

How does this affect the Core Web Vitals?

LCP discovery correlates with the LCP. With Header, 95% of sites pass the LCP. With JS, 70% do.

Go fix it LCP: resource load delay → Preload the LCP image → Background images are evil → How I lowered the LCP by 70 percent →
Related signals LCP image size → LCP element type → LCP origin → LCP image format → Chrome field data from 189,915 sites, representing millions of real page loads · How we measured