HTML document size and the Core Web Vitals

35.3% of audited sites (72,808) ship an initial HTML document under 14 KB and reach 87% good LCP (1.3s median), compared to 76% good LCP (1.8s median) on the 25.4% shipping 30 to 75 KB of HTML.

Field data PhoneDesktopAll Scope All sites October 2026 edition · Phone field outcomes

35.3% of sites use under 14 KB of HTML initial HTML document size, and 87% of those sites have a good LCP, against 82% of all sites.

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · 210,902 crawled sites · 126,761 with phone field data · 206,244 sites with initial HTML document sizeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Core Web Vitals pass rate

Sites with under 14 KB of HTML initial HTML document size have a good LCP most often: 87%, against 82% of all sites. Sites with 30 to 75 KB of HTML HTML size have it least often, at 76%.

SitesGood, needs improvement, poor LCPMedian
All sites126,76182%1.6s
Under 14 KB (First TCP window) 35.3%42,99587%1.3s
14 KB to 30 KB 28.2%35,51182%1.6s
Over 75 KB 11.1%15,01478%1.7s
30 KB to 75 KB 25.4%33,22976%1.8s
GoodNeeds improvementPoorSites: with Chrome field data
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · 210,902 crawled sites · 126,761 with phone field data · 206,244 sites with initial HTML document sizeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Initial HTML document size usage

Under 14 KB of HTML is the most used: 35.3% of sites.

Under 14 KB (First TCP window) 35.3% 14 KB to 30 KB 28.2% 30 KB to 75 KB 25.4% Over 75 KB 11.1%
Under 14 KB (First TCP window) 35.3% 14 KB to 30 KB 28.2% 30 KB to 75 KB 25.4% Over 75 KB 11.1%
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · 210,902 crawled sites · 126,761 with phone field data · 206,244 sites with initial HTML document sizeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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LCP phase breakdown by initial HTML document size

Across the four LCP sub-parts in Chrome's field data, the largest gap between under 14 KB of HTML and 30 to 75 KB of HTML sits in time to first byte (TTFB): 521 ms median for under 14 KB of HTML against 762 ms for 30 to 75 KB of HTML. Overall median field LCP is 1.3s for under 14 KB of HTML (TTFB 521 ms, load delay 268 ms, load duration 131 ms, render delay 214 ms) versus 1.7s for 30 to 75 KB of HTML.

Median LCP phase breakdown (Chrome field p75) Load delay Median LCP
Sites with initial HTML document size 92,460650 ms336 ms236 ms336 mslab 326 ms1.6s
Under 14 KB (First TCP window) 29,502521 ms268 ms214 ms268 mslab 259 ms1.3s
14 KB to 30 KB 25,913739 ms311 ms235 ms311 mslab 300 ms1.6s
30 KB to 75 KB 25,259762 ms390 ms259 ms390 mslab 381 ms1.7s
Over 75 KB 11,786655 ms449 ms244 ms449 mslab 447 ms1.7s
TTFB Resource load delay Resource load time Element render delay
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · 210,902 crawled sites · 126,761 with phone field data · 206,244 sites with initial HTML document sizeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Understanding initial HTML document size

Why the 14 KB initial TCP congestion window sets the pace for LCP discovery

A new TCP connection transfers roughly 14 KB (10 segments) in its first round-trip before waiting for a client ACK. Across 72,808 sites (35.3%) whose HTML fits under 14 KB, 87% achieve good LCP (1.3s median, 521 ms TTFB). Sites between 14 and 30 KB (28.2%) record 82% good LCP (1.6s median), while pages bloating to 30 to 75 KB (25.4%) drop to 76% good LCP (1.8s median) and pages over 75 KB (11.1%) sit at 78% good LCP (1.7s median).

Place <meta charset>, viewport, and <link rel="preload"> for the LCP image at the very top of <head> within the first 14 KB, and trim oversized inline CSS blocks or serialized SSR JSON payloads. Across all audited sites, 35.3% ship under 14 KB (87% good LCP) while 25.4% ship 30 to 75 KB (76% good LCP).

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · 210,902 crawled sites · 126,761 with phone field data · 206,244 sites with initial HTML document sizeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
Platform & Framework Takeaways

How initial HTML document size plays out per platform

What the field data shows when you isolate a single CMS or framework.

WordPress 65,509 sites
82% vs 59% good LCP (<14 KB vs >75 KB HTML)

WordPress pages over 75 KB HTML (10.9%) pass LCP at 59% vs 82% under 14 KB.

Across 65,509 WordPress sites, 11.8% ship HTML under 14 KB (82% good LCP, 1.6s median), 39.6% ship 14 to 30 KB (73% good LCP), 37.8% ship 30 to 75 KB (65% good LCP), and 10.9% exceed 75 KB (59% good LCP).

Read the WordPress HTML size breakdown →
Shopify 8,573 stores
63.2% / 25.8% 30-75 KB / >75 KB HTML on Shopify

89% of Shopify stores ship over 30 KB of HTML (96% good LCP at 30 to 75 KB vs 92% over 75 KB).

Across 8,573 Shopify storefronts, 63.2% transfer 30 to 75 KB of HTML (96% good LCP, 1.3s median) and 25.8% exceed 75 KB (92% good LCP, 1.6s median).

Read the Shopify HTML size breakdown →
React & Next.js 9,570 sites
67.7% React sites over 75 KB HTML (90% LCP)

67.7% of React & Next.js sites ship over 75 KB of HTML (90% good LCP).

Across React sites, 67.7% transfer over 75 KB of initial HTML (90% good LCP) and 16.9% transfer 30 to 75 KB (65% good LCP).

Related signals HTTP protocol mix → HTTP protocol → ETag present → Cache strategy mix → By Arjen Karel · 210,902 crawled sites (126,761 with phone Chrome field data, 206,244 sites with initial HTML document size, October 2026) · How we measured