WordPress script initiators and the Core Web Vitals

98.7% of audited sites (62,469) load scripts directly from the HTML parser (97% good INP, 96ms median), while 87.0% inject scripts via other scripts (96% good INP, 97ms median) and 10.4% trigger scripts from other initiators (95% good INP).

Field data PhoneDesktopAll Scope All sites October 2026 edition · Phone field outcomes · WordPress sites only
WordPress Scoped to 63,295 sites out of 203,892 analyzed (cms) Compare with all sites →

98.7% of WordPress sites use parser-initiated scripts script initiator type, and 97% of those sites have a good INP, against 97% of all WordPress sites.

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field data · 63,280 sites with script initiator typeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Core Web Vitals pass rate

Sites with parser-initiated scripts script initiator type have a good INP most often: 97%, against 97% of all WordPress sites. Sites with other script initiators script initiators have it least often, at 95%.

SitesGood, needs improvement, poor INPMedian
All WordPress sites36,52497%96ms
HTML parser (<script src>) 98.7%36,04297%96ms
Inline <script> execution 99.9%36,50497%96ms
Script-injected (tag managers / loaders) 87.0%31,66796%97ms
Other initiators (workers / preloads) 10.4%3,95795%103ms
GoodNeeds improvementPoorSites: with Chrome field data
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field data · 63,280 sites with script initiator typeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Script initiator type usage

Inline scripts is the most used: 99.9% of WordPress sites. Parser-initiated scripts is 98.7% of WordPress sites.

Sites using each option (sites can use more than one) 63,280 sites
Inline <script> execution 99.9% HTML parser (<script src>) 98.7% Script-injected (tag managers / loaders) 87.0%
Inline <script> execution 99.9% HTML parser (<script src>) 98.7% Script-injected (tag managers / loaders) 87.0% Other initiators (workers / preloads) 10.4%
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field data · 63,280 sites with script initiator typeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Script initiator type per framework

Alpine sets the script initiator type to parser-initiated scripts on 100% of its sites, and 88% of Alpine sites have a good INP, against 97% of all sites. jQuery sets the script initiator type to inline scripts on 100% of its sites, and 97% of jQuery sites have a good INP.

FrameworkScript initiator type on its sitesGood INP
WordPress sites with script initiator type 63,280 sitesInline <script> execution 100%HTML parser (<script src>) 99%Script-injected (tag managers / loaders) 87%Other initiators (workers / preloads) 10%97%
jQuery 60,311 sitesInline <script> execution 100%HTML parser (<script src>) 99%Script-injected (tag managers / loaders) 88%Other initiators (workers / preloads) 11%97%
React 2,233 sitesInline <script> execution 100%HTML parser (<script src>) 99%Script-injected (tag managers / loaders) 87%Other initiators (workers / preloads) 13%96%
Vue 4,844 sitesInline <script> execution 100%HTML parser (<script src>) 99%Script-injected (tag managers / loaders) 80%95%
Alpine 380 sitesInline <script> execution 100%HTML parser (<script src>) 100%Script-injected (tag managers / loaders) 96%Other initiators (workers / preloads) 25%88%
Inline <script> execution HTML parser (<script src>) Script-injected (tag managers / loaders) Other initiators (workers / preloads)
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field data · 63,280 sites with script initiator typeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Script initiator or the framework

Does the framework explain the script initiator type difference?

Almost every site with parser-initiated scripts script initiator type is a jQuery site, and almost every jQuery site has parser-initiated scripts script initiator type, so the data can't tell parser-initiated scripts script initiator type and jQuery apart. On Vue, 95% of sites with parser-initiated scripts script initiator type have a good INP, against 95% of Vue sites with inline scripts. Within Vue, sites with parser-initiated scripts and inline scripts have a good INP about equally often. On React, 96% of sites with parser-initiated scripts script initiator type have a good INP, against 96% of React sites with inline scripts. Within React, sites with parser-initiated scripts and inline scripts have a good INP about equally often.

Parser-discovered scripts versus cascading script-injected chains

When scripts are declared in HTML (98.7% of sites, 62,469), the browser preload scanner discovers them immediately (97% good INP, 96ms median). On 87.0% of sites (55,082), scripts are dynamically injected by other scripts such as Google Tag Manager or loader snippets (96% good INP, 97ms median), while 10.4% (6,594) trigger scripts via other initiators (95% good INP, 103ms median).

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field data · 63,280 sites with script initiator typeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Understanding script initiators

Declare essential scripts directly in HTML with defer so the preload scanner discovers them early, and cap cascading script-injected GTM tags. On WordPress, 98.7% of sites use parser-initiated scripts (97% good INP) while 10.4% trigger other script initiators (95% good INP).

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field data · 63,280 sites with script initiator typeBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
Related signals Uses @import → Iframe dimensions set → Responsive image markup → Third-party share → By Arjen Karel · 63,295 crawled WordPress sites (36,524 with phone Chrome field data, 63,280 sites with script initiator type, October 2026) · How we measured