The State of Web Vitals

What shifted

What kind of element moved in the captured layout shifts (heuristic, top-5 shifts per site).

Field data PhoneDesktopAll Scope All sites Q1 2026 edition · Phone field outcomes
Metric LCP INP CLS
1

At a glance the headline numbers for What shifted

What kind of element moved in the captured layout shifts (heuristic, top-5 shifts per site).

5
Categories
In the distribution
83.0%
Fleet share
Top: box_grow
52.5%
Sites with any
Of box_grow

2.0% of captured layout shifts trace back to unsized media. Font swaps account for 6.0%.

The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
2

The what shifted mix who uses what, and how fast each group loads

Median LCP (sites using feature)
0
0.5s
1s
1.5s
2s
2.5s
3s
3.5s
4s
Box grow1.6s83% of sites
Displaced1.6s8% of sites
Font text1.6s6% of sites
Unsized media1.6s2% of sites
Embed grow1.8s1% of sites
VariantShare of sitesMedian
Box grow
83%
1.6s
Displaced
8%
1.6s
Font text
6%
1.6s
Unsized media
2%
1.6s
Embed grow
1%
1.8s

What shifted. On the fleet: 83.0% box grow, 8.4% displaced, 6.0% font text. 52.5% of sites use at least one box_grow.

Lowest-share bucket: LCP 1.5s. Highest-share bucket: LCP 1.6s. r = +0.30.

The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
3

Passing LCP per bucket every category and count level at once - color is the pass rate

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Box grow 83%
84
81
80
80
82
82
80
80
82
80
79
76
Displaced 8.4%
81
82
80
81
81
80
82
82
79
81
80
80
Font text 6%
81
81
79
83
81
85
85
85
83
82
86
81
Unsized media 2%
81
85
81
72
84
85
85
83
78
83
78
83
Embed grow 0.6%
81
90
100
72
68
75
83
71
71
← few of this category on the pagemany →
60%95%+ of sites passing LCP Faded cells: under 100 sites

Each row is a category, each column its own count bucket (few on the left, many on the right); the cell is the share of those sites passing LCP.

Box grow swings the hardest: 84% of sites pass LCP with few, 76% with many. computed

The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
4

Few vs many - does quantity cost LCP? the pass rate with few vs many of each category

60%70%80%90%100% few → many
Box grow 83% 84% → 76%
Unsized media 2% 81% → 78%
Displaced 8.4% 81% → 80%
Font text 6% 81% → 81%
% of sites passing LCP · hollow ring = pages with few, solid dot = pages with many

Per category: the pass rate among pages with FEW of it (hollow ring) against pages with MANY (solid dot), worst trend first. Thin buckets are excluded from the endpoints.

More Box grow costs the most: the LCP pass rate falls from 84% with few to 76% with many. computed

The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
5

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

CLS tells you how much the page moved. This metric tells you what moved, and that decides the fix. An image without dimensions pushes everything below it down when it arrives. A swapped web font reflows whole paragraphs of text. An injected embed, banner or ad shoves the content aside after the page looked done.

Each element type has its own cure. Images need width and height so the browser reserves the box. Text needs a font-display strategy and a fallback font with matching metrics. Embeds and ads need a fixed slot that exists before they load. Identify the element first, then apply the matching fix.

How does this affect the Core Web Vitals?

Of the 5 categories, Embed grow separates passing sites from failing sites the most. Where Embed grow is rare: 87% pass the CLS. Where it is common: 55%.

Go fix it Identify and fix CLS → CLS from images and media → Fix layout shift from auto-sizing images → Keep text visible during font load →
Related signals Layout shift count → Shift direction → Largest single shift → Shift concentration → Chrome field data from 94,910 sites, representing millions of real page loads · How we measured