Image hosting origins and the Core Web Vitals
85.8% of audited sites (169,369) serve images from their own origin (86% good LCP, 1.4s median), 72.0% load images from external domains or CDNs (85% good LCP), and 15.9% inline base64 data-URI images (83% good LCP, 1.5s median).
85.8% of sites use same-origin images image hosting origin, and 86% of those sites have a good LCP, against 86% of all sites.
LCP pass rate
Sites with same-origin images image hosting origin have a good LCP most often: 86%, against 86% of all sites. Sites with inline data-URI images image origin have it least often, at 83%.
Image hosting origin usage
Same-origin images is the most used: 85.8% of sites.
LCP phase breakdown by image hosting source
Across the four LCP sub-parts in Chrome's field data, the largest gap between same-origin images and inline data-URI images sits in time to first byte (TTFB): 587 ms median for same-origin images against 670 ms for inline data-URI images. Overall median field LCP is 1.4s for same-origin images (TTFB 587 ms, load delay 266 ms, load duration 110 ms, render delay 193 ms) versus 1.5s for inline data-URI images.
Image hosting origin per platform
Joomla sets the image hosting origin to same-origin images on 99% of its sites, and 93% of Joomla sites have a good LCP, against 86% of all sites. Wix sets the image hosting origin to cross-origin images on 100% of its sites, and 92% of Wix sites have a good LCP.
Shopify 8,567 sitesSame-origin (self-hosted) 99%Cross-origin / external CDN 82%Inline data: URI images 10%97%
Squarespace 2,256 sitesCross-origin / external CDN 100%Inline data: URI images 14%94%
Drupal 3,284 sitesSame-origin (self-hosted) 98%Cross-origin / external CDN 66%Inline data: URI images 12%93%
Joomla 2,548 sitesSame-origin (self-hosted) 99%Cross-origin / external CDN 47%93%
Wix 5,823 sitesCross-origin / external CDN 100%Inline data: URI images 36%92%
Adobe Commerce 1,095 sitesSame-origin (self-hosted) 98%Cross-origin / external CDN 84%Inline data: URI images 17%83%
WordPress 65,444 sitesSame-origin (self-hosted) 98%Cross-origin / external CDN 70%Inline data: URI images 21%76%Image hosting origin or the platform
Does the platform explain the image hosting origin difference?
On WordPress, 76% of sites with same-origin images image hosting origin have a good LCP, against 75% of WordPress sites with cross-origin images. Within WordPress, sites with same-origin images and cross-origin images have a good LCP about equally often. On Shopify, 97% of sites with same-origin images image hosting origin have a good LCP, against 96% of Shopify sites with cross-origin images. Within Shopify, sites with same-origin images and cross-origin images have a good LCP about equally often.
Why base64 inline data-URI images bloat HTML and delay LCP
Serving images from the same origin (85.8% of sites, 169,369) reuses the primary HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 connection (86% good LCP, 1.4s median). Cross-origin images (72.0%, 85% good LCP) include both dedicated media CDNs and external third-party pixels. Inlining images as base64 data: URIs (15.9% of sites, 31,408) inflates HTML/CSS byte size by ~33% and blocks the parser, dropping good LCP to 83% (1.5s median).
Understanding image hosting origins
Serve images from your primary origin to share the main connection, or add <link rel="preconnect"> if you use a dedicated cross-origin image CDN, and avoid base64 data: URIs for anything larger than tiny CSS icons. Across all audited sites, 85.8% use same-origin images (86% good LCP) while 15.9% inline data: URIs (83% good LCP).
By Arjen Karel · 210,902 crawled sites (69,745 with desktop Chrome field data, 197,455 sites with image hosting origin, October 2026). How we measured.