The State of Web Vitals

font-display strategy

The font-display strategy on declared fonts: swap, block, optional, fallback, auto.

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

At a glance the headline numbers for font-display strategy

The font-display strategy on declared fonts: swap, block, optional, fallback, auto.

5
Categories
In the distribution
49.5%
Fleet share
Top: swap
57.7%
Sites with any
Of swap

49.5% of fonts use font-display swap. 9.4% still hide their text while loading.

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

The font-display strategy mix who uses what, and how fast each group loads

Median INP (sites using feature)
0
100ms
200ms
300ms
400ms
500ms
Swap89ms50% of sites
Auto86ms40% of sites
Block87ms9% of sites
Fallback87ms1% of sites
Optional95ms0% of sites
VariantShare of sitesMedian
Swap
50%
89ms
Auto
40%
86ms
Block
9%
87ms
Fallback
1%
87ms
Optional
0%
95ms

font-display strategy. On the fleet: 49.5% swap, 40.0% auto, 9.4% block. 57.7% of sites use at least one swap.

Lowest-share bucket: INP 82ms. Highest-share bucket: INP 89ms. r = +0.24.

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

Passing INP 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
Swap 49.5%
94
96
97
95
96
95
96
95
97
97
94
94
Auto 40%
91
96
96
96
96
96
96
97
98
98
97
98
Block 9.4%
94
97
98
98
98
98
97
82
94
98
98
99
Fallback 1%
95
99
92
97
98
97
98
100
97
98
83
Optional 0.1%
95
94
94
92
94
92
91
← few of this category on the pagemany →
60%95%+ of sites passing INP 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 INP.

Auto swings the hardest: 91% of sites pass INP with few, 98% with many. computed

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

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

60%70%80%90%100% few → many
Swap 49.5% 94% → 94%
Fallback 1% 95% → 98%
Block 9.4% 94% → 99%
Auto 40% 91% → 98%
% of sites passing INP · 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.

Quantity barely moves INP here. The worst trend is Swap, at 100 points. computed

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

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

font-display decides what text does while the web font downloads. block hides it: invisible text, and a direct LCP delay when the LCP element is text. swap shows the fallback font immediately and switches when the web font lands, and that switch reflows the page (CLS) when the two fonts have different metrics. optional shows the fallback and only uses the web font if it arrives fast, which is the safest setting for the vitals.

The CLS half of swap is fixable without giving up the font: tune the fallback with size-adjust and the override descriptors so the swap barely moves anything.

How does this affect the Core Web Vitals?

Of the 5 categories, Block separates passing sites from failing sites the most. Where Block is rare: 86% pass the LCP. Where it is common: 76%.

Go fix it Keep text visible during font load → Responsive font loading strategy → Self-host Google Fonts →
Related signals Stylesheet origin (1P/3P) → CSS coverage (used vs unused) → Image format mix → Fonts per page → Chrome field data from 94,910 sites, representing millions of real page loads · How we measured