LCP priority hints (fetchpriority, preload, preconnect) and the Core Web Vitals
fetchpriority="high", <link rel="preload">, <link rel="preconnect">, or no hint at all: how priority hints cut LCP resource load delay (220 ms with preload vs 337 ms with no hint) and move Largest Contentful Paint.
86.0% of sites have no LCP priority hints. Of the 14.0% that do, 26% use <link rel="preconnect">, and 85% of those sites have a good LCP, against 82% of all sites.
LCP pass rate
Sites with <link rel="preconnect"> LCP priority hints have a good LCP most often: 85%, against 82% of all sites. Sites with <link rel="preload"> priority hints have it least often, at 81%.
LCP priority hints usage
14.0% of sites use LCP priority hints, and three in five of those use fetchpriority="high". <link rel="preconnect"> is 26% of the sites with priority hints, 3.7% of all sites.
Where priority hints save time: the four LCP phases
Across the four LCP sub-parts in Chrome's field data, the largest gap between <link rel="preconnect"> and no sits in time to first byte (TTFB): 492 ms median for <link rel="preconnect"> against 660 ms for no. Overall median field LCP is 1.4s for <link rel="preconnect"> (TTFB 492 ms, load delay 381 ms, load duration 141 ms, render delay 244 ms) versus 1.6s for no.
LCP priority hints combined with the loading attribute
Combining <link rel="preconnect"> with Eager reaches 89% good LCP across 183 sites (247 ms median load delay). At the other end, <link rel="preconnect"> paired with Auto sits at 81% across 1,395 sites (398 ms median load delay).
| Priority hint | No loading attribute (auto) | loading="lazy" | loading="eager" |
|---|---|---|---|
| No priority hint | 85% 44,638 sites | 84% 12,211 sites | 84% 2,746 sites |
| fetchpriority="high" | 82% 12,863 sites | 87% 201 sites | 88% 3,038 sites |
| <link rel="preload"> | 84% 573 sites | 88% 37 sites | 83% 77 sites |
| <link rel="preconnect"> | 81% 2,128 sites | 88% 1,571 sites | 89% 262 sites |
Understanding LCP priority hints
How fetchpriority and preload change Chrome's network queue
Chromium starts <img> requests at Low network priority while stylesheets and head scripts download at Highest or High priority, only promoting visible viewport images to High after layout completes. Adding fetchpriority="high" to the hero <img> sets its initial network priority to High during the preload scan, while <link rel="preload" as="image"> starts the download from the document <head> and cuts median resource load delay from 337 ms to 220 ms.
Add fetchpriority="high" directly to your hero <img> element, and use <link rel="preload" as="image" fetchpriority="high"> if the image is discovered late. Across all audited sites, 86.0% of LCP elements carry no priority hint at all (81% good LCP, 337 ms median resource load delay). Sites using fetchpriority="high" reach 84% good LCP (320 ms load delay), and sites using <link rel="preload"> cut median resource load delay to 220 ms. Apply priority hints strictly to the single LCP resource so other images do not compete for the same bandwidth.
How LCP priority hints plays out per platform
What the field data shows when you isolate a single CMS or framework.
WordPress 60,125 sites 84.8% of WordPress hero elements carry no priority hint (75% good LCP with highprio vs 68% with none).
WordPress 6.3+ adds fetchpriority="high" to the first detected content image during server rendering. Across WordPress, 10.7% of LCP elements carry fetchpriority="high" (75% good LCP, 1.8s median) and 84.8% carry no priority hint (68% good LCP, 2.0s median).
React & Next.js 9,048 sites 35.2% of React & Next.js sites set fetchpriority="high" on the LCP element (92% vs 81% good LCP).
Next.js <Image> supports the fetchPriority="high" and priority props. Across React sites, 35.2% set fetchpriority="high" on the LCP element (92% good LCP, 1.2s median) compared with 60.9% with no hint (81% good LCP, 1.5s median, 11 percentage points apart).
Shopify 7,873 stores 27.6% of Shopify stores set fetchpriority="high" on the hero image (1.3s median LCP).
Across Shopify storefronts, 27.6% set fetchpriority="high" on the LCP element (96% good LCP, 1.3s median) and 69.9% carry no priority hint (95% good LCP, 1.4s median).
By Arjen Karel · 203,892 crawled sites (122,633 with phone Chrome field data, 189,797 sites with LCP priority hints, October 2026). How we measured.