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 CLS site count and median CLS at each level of connection hints — dns prefetch

0.00 0.04 0.08 0.11 0.15
0.1
0 32173 64346
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8–9 >p98
Good (≤0.1) Needs improvement Poor (>0.25) Site count
The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
3

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

Connection hints — dns prefetchSitesPassing CLSCLS
0 64,346 89% 0.00
1 14,501 90% 0.00
2 7,044 89% 0.00
3 3,428 88% 0.00
4 2,243 90% 0.00
5 1,078 89% 0.00
6 587 88% 0.00
7 354 88% 0.00
8–9 603 87% 0.00
>p98 564 80% 0.01
Good Needs Improvement Poor Faded rows: under 100 sites

Connection hints — dns prefetch 0. p75 1. p99 8. Spearman with CLS r = +0.34. At the low end (0): CLS 0.00. At the high end (>p98): CLS 0.01. computed

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

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

0.00 0.04 0.08 0.11 0.15
0.1
0 34058 68116
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >p98
Good (≤0.1) Needs improvement Poor (>0.25) Site count
The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
5

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

Connection hints — preconnectSitesPassing CLSCLS
0 68,116 90% 0.00
1 10,230 87% 0.00
2 8,950 90% 0.00
3 3,772 89% 0.00
4 1,932 86% 0.00
5 762 75% 0.01
6 340 80% 0.01
7 226 85% 0.01
>p98 420 78% 0.03
Good Needs Improvement Poor Faded rows: under 100 sites

Connection hints — preconnect 0. p75 1. p99 6. Spearman with CLS r = +0.40. At the low end (0): CLS 0.00. At the high end (>p98): CLS 0.03. computed

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

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

0.00 0.04 0.08 0.11 0.15
0.1
0 33652 67303
0 1 2 3 4 5 6–7 8–9 10–13 14–17 18–24 >p98
Good (≤0.1) Needs improvement Poor (>0.25) Site count
The State of Web Vitals · Q1 2026 · 94,910 sites · phone field datacorewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
7

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

Connection hints — preloadSitesPassing CLSCLS
0 67,303 89% 0.00
1 7,633 88% 0.00
2 5,532 89% 0.00
3 2,509 87% 0.00
4 3,625 91% 0.00
5 2,253 91% 0.00
6–7 2,361 88% 0.00
8–9 1,147 79% 0.00
10–13 1,014 83% 0.00
14–17 374 85% 0.00
18–24 460 83% 0.01
>p98 537 80% 0.01
Good Needs Improvement Poor Faded rows: under 100 sites

Connection hints — preload 0. p75 1. p99 18. Spearman with CLS r = +0.36. At the low end (0): CLS 0.00. At the high end (>p98): CLS 0.01. 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