Preloaded font count and the Core Web Vitals
7.8% of audited sites (15,743) preload 1 to 2 web fonts and reach 85% good LCP (1.5s median), whereas the 2.4% preloading 5 or more fonts drop to 80% good LCP (1.7s median).
86.6% of sites have no preloaded font count. Of the 13.4% that do, 58% use 1 to 2 preloaded fonts, and 85% of those sites have a good LCP, against 82% of all sites.
86.6% of sites have no preloaded font count. Of the 13.4% that do, 58% use 1 to 2 preloaded fonts, and 90% of those sites have a good CLS, against 89% of all sites.
Core Web Vitals pass rate
Sites with 1 to 2 preloaded fonts preloaded font count have a good LCP most often: 85%, against 82% of all sites. Sites with 5+ preloaded fonts font preloads have it least often, at 80%.
Sites with 1 to 2 preloaded fonts preloaded font count have a good CLS most often: 90%, against 89% of all sites. Sites with 3 to 4 preloaded fonts font preloads have it least often, at 87%.
Preloaded font count usage
13.4% of sites use preloaded font count, and three in five of those use 1 to 2 preloaded fonts.
LCP phase breakdown by number of preloaded fonts
Across the four LCP sub-parts in Chrome's field data, the largest gap between 1 to 2 preloaded fonts and 0 preloaded fonts sits in time to first byte (TTFB): 543 ms median for 1 to 2 preloaded fonts against 660 ms for 0 preloaded fonts. Overall median field LCP is 1.5s for 1 to 2 preloaded fonts (TTFB 543 ms, load delay 429 ms, load duration 172 ms, render delay 267 ms) versus 1.6s for 0 preloaded fonts.
Across the four LCP sub-parts in Chrome's field data, the largest gap between 1 to 2 preloaded fonts and 0 preloaded fonts sits in time to first byte (TTFB): 543 ms median for 1 to 2 preloaded fonts against 660 ms for 0 preloaded fonts. Overall median field LCP is 1.5s for 1 to 2 preloaded fonts (TTFB 543 ms, load delay 429 ms, load duration 172 ms, render delay 267 ms) versus 1.6s for 0 preloaded fonts.
Understanding preloaded font count
Why preloading 1 to 2 fonts helps LCP while preloading 5+ fonts starves the hero image
Normally the browser discovers web fonts only after downloading CSS and matching @font-face rules to DOM nodes. Preloading 1 to 2 core WOFF2 files (7.8% of sites, 15,743) starts font fetches immediately and lifts good LCP to 85% (1.5s median), ahead of the 86.6% with 0 font preloads (82% good LCP, 1.6s median). However, preloading 3 to 4 fonts (3.3%) drops good LCP to 81% (1.6s median), and preloading 5 or more fonts (2.4%) saturates early bandwidth and drops good LCP to 80% (1.7s median).
Limit <link rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin> to at most 1 or 2 above-the-fold WOFF2 files, or consolidate weights into a single variable font file. Across all audited sites, 7.8% preload 1 to 2 fonts (85% good LCP) and 2.4% preload 5 or more (80% good LCP).
How preloaded font count plays out per platform
What the field data shows when you isolate a single CMS or framework.
WordPress 65,509 sites 88.3% of WordPress sites preload zero fonts (70% good LCP), while 6.6% preload 1 to 2 fonts.
Across 65,509 WordPress sites, 88.3% emit no font preload links (70% good LCP), 6.6% preload 1 to 2 fonts (68% good LCP), and 5% preload 3 or more font files.
React & Next.js 9,570 sites 94.8% of React & Next.js sites have zero HTML font preload tags (85% good LCP vs 67% with 1 to 2 preloads).
Across 9,570 React sites, 94.8% have 0 explicit <link rel="preload" as="font"> tags in the DOM (85% good LCP) and 3.0% have 1 to 2 font preload links (67% good LCP).
By Arjen Karel · 210,902 crawled sites (126,761 with phone Chrome field data, 201,622 sites with preloaded font count, October 2026). How we measured.