The State of Web Vitals

Connection hints

dns-prefetch, preconnect and preload links the document declares.

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

At a glance the headline numbers for Connection hints

dns-prefetch, preconnect and preload links the document declares.

0
dns-prefetch hints
on the typical page
0
preconnect hints
on the typical page
0
preloads
on the typical page
94,748
sites measured
phone field data

Connection hints on the typical site: 0 dns-prefetch, 0 preconnect, 0 preload.

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

Distribution & median LCP site count and median LCP at each level of connection hints — dns prefetch

0ms 750ms 1500ms 2250ms 3000ms
2.5s
0 32173 64346
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8–9 >p98
Good (≤2.5s) Needs improvement Poor (>4s) Site count
The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
3

Passing LCP by connection hints — dns prefetch which level passes the LCP most often

Connection hints — dns prefetchSitesPassing LCPLCP
0 64,346 85% 1.5s
1 14,501 75% 1.8s
2 7,044 72% 1.9s
3 3,428 73% 1.8s
4 2,243 81% 1.6s
5 1,078 78% 1.7s
6 587 79% 1.7s
7 354 76% 1.7s
8–9 603 78% 1.8s
>p98 564 70% 2.0s
Good Needs Improvement Poor Faded rows: under 100 sites

Connection hints — dns prefetch 0. p75 1. p99 8. Spearman with LCP r = +0.32. At the low end (0): LCP 1.5s. At the high end (>p98): LCP 2.0s. computed

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

Distribution & median LCP site count and median LCP at each level of connection hints — preconnect

0ms 750ms 1500ms 2250ms 3000ms
2.5s
0 34058 68116
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >p98
Good (≤2.5s) Needs improvement Poor (>4s) Site count
The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
5

Passing LCP by connection hints — preconnect which level passes the LCP most often

Connection hints — preconnectSitesPassing LCPLCP
0 68,116 82% 1.5s
1 10,230 78% 1.6s
2 8,950 83% 1.6s
3 3,772 86% 1.5s
4 1,932 85% 1.6s
5 762 77% 1.8s
6 340 80% 1.7s
7 226 85% 1.6s
>p98 420 78% 1.8s
Good Needs Improvement Poor Faded rows: under 100 sites

Connection hints — preconnect 0. p75 1. p99 6. At the low end (0): LCP 1.5s. At the high end (>p98): LCP 1.8s. computed

The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
6

Distribution & median LCP site count and median LCP at each level of connection hints — preload

0ms 750ms 1500ms 2250ms 3000ms
2.5s
0 33652 67303
0 1 2 3 4 5 6–7 8–9 10–13 14–17 18–24 >p98
Good (≤2.5s) Needs improvement Poor (>4s) Site count
The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
7

Passing LCP by connection hints — preload which level passes the LCP most often

Connection hints — preloadSitesPassing LCPLCP
0 67,303 82% 1.5s
1 7,633 81% 1.6s
2 5,532 86% 1.5s
3 2,509 83% 1.6s
4 3,625 88% 1.4s
5 2,253 87% 1.5s
6–7 2,361 78% 1.7s
8–9 1,147 81% 1.7s
10–13 1,014 78% 1.6s
14–17 374 82% 1.7s
18–24 460 78% 1.9s
>p98 537 63% 2.1s
Good Needs Improvement Poor Faded rows: under 100 sites

Connection hints — preload 0. p75 1. p99 18. At the low end (0): LCP 1.5s. At the high end (>p98): LCP 2.1s. computed

The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
8

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

Hints move network work earlier. dns-prefetch resolves a domain name before it is needed. preconnect goes further and completes the TCP and TLS setup too. preload fetches one specific file that the scanner would otherwise find late, like a background hero image or a critical font.

Hints are easy to overuse. Every preconnect spends sockets and CPU on a connection you might never use. A preload that is not critical steals bandwidth from something that is. A handful of deliberate hints beats a wall of them.

How does this affect the Core Web Vitals?

Connection hints correlate with the LCP. Preloads separates passing sites from failing sites the most. With few preloads, 82% of sites pass the LCP. With many, 63% do. The decline is gradual. There is no point where sites suddenly start failing.

Go fix it Guide to resource prioritization → Preload the LCP image → When preloading stylesheets does not make sense → 103 Early Hints →
Related signals Cacheable responses → Last-Modified present → Requests via CDN → HTML size (kB) → Chrome field data from 94,910 sites, representing millions of real page loads · How we measured