WordPress synthetic paint milestones and the Core Web Vitals

16.1% of audited sites (10,190) paint their hero element in under 300ms in the lab and pass field LCP at 89% (1.3s median), while the 32.4% exceeding 1,500ms in the lab pass field LCP at just 57% (2.3s median).

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

16.1% of WordPress sites use under 300ms lab LCP synthetic paint milestones, and 89% of those sites have a good LCP, against 76% of all WordPress sites.

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 17,005 with desktop field data · 63,151 sites with synthetic paint milestonesBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
1

LCP pass rate

Sites with under 300ms lab LCP synthetic paint milestones have a good LCP most often: 89%, against 76% of all WordPress sites. Sites with over 1,500ms lab LCP lab paint time have it least often, at 57%.

SitesGood, needs improvement, poor LCPMedian
All WordPress sites17,00576%1.7s
Under 300ms lab LCP 16.1%2,76689%1.3s
300 to 600ms lab LCP 21.1%3,63787%1.4s
600 to 1,500ms lab LCP 30.3%4,90882%1.7s
Over 1,500ms lab LCP 32.4%5,64557%2.3s
GoodNeeds improvementPoorSites: with Chrome field data
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 17,005 with desktop field data · 63,151 sites with synthetic paint milestonesBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
2

Synthetic paint milestones usage

Over 1,500ms lab LCP is the most used: 32.4% of WordPress sites. Under 300ms lab LCP is 16.1% of WordPress sites.

Over 1,500ms lab LCP 32.4% 600 to 1,500ms lab LCP 30.3% 300 to 600ms lab LCP 21.1% Under 300ms lab LCP 16.1%
Over 1,500ms lab LCP 32.4% 600 to 1,500ms lab LCP 30.3% 300 to 600ms lab LCP 21.1% Under 300ms lab LCP 16.1%
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 17,005 with desktop field data · 63,151 sites with synthetic paint milestonesBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
3

The four LCP phases

Across the four LCP sub-parts in Chrome's field data, the largest gap between under 300ms lab LCP and over 1,500ms lab LCP sits in time to first byte (TTFB): 700 ms median for under 300ms lab LCP against 1384 ms for over 1,500ms lab LCP. Overall median field LCP is 1.3s for under 300ms lab LCP (TTFB 700 ms, load delay 224 ms, load duration 122 ms, render delay 209 ms) versus 2.3s for over 1,500ms lab LCP.

Median LCP phase breakdown (Chrome field p75) Load delay Median LCP
WordPress sites with synthetic paint milestones 11,776998 ms289 ms289 mslab 330 ms1.8s
Under 300ms lab LCP 1,807700 ms224 mslab 249 ms1.3s
300 to 600ms lab LCP 2,529731 ms260 ms260 mslab 303 ms1.4s
600 to 1,500ms lab LCP 3,4261000 ms292 ms292 mslab 338 ms1.7s
Over 1,500ms lab LCP 4,0141384 ms345 ms238 ms345 mslab 404 ms2.3s
TTFB Resource load delay Resource load time Element render delay
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 17,005 with desktop field data · 63,151 sites with synthetic paint milestonesBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
4

Synthetic paint milestones per framework

On jQuery, 33% of sites use over 1,500ms lab LCP synthetic paint milestones, and 75% of jQuery sites have a good LCP, against 76% of all sites. On Vue, 44% of sites use over 1,500ms lab LCP, and 75% of Vue sites have a good LCP.

FrameworkSynthetic paint milestones on its sitesGood LCP
WordPress sites with synthetic paint milestones 63,151 sitesOver 1,500ms lab LCP 32%600 to 1,500ms lab LCP 30%300 to 600ms lab LCP 21%Under 300ms lab LCP 16%76%
Alpine 377 sites600 to 1,500ms lab LCP 27%Over 1,500ms lab LCP 26%Under 300ms lab LCP 24%300 to 600ms lab LCP 23%82%
jQuery 60,182 sitesOver 1,500ms lab LCP 33%600 to 1,500ms lab LCP 31%300 to 600ms lab LCP 21%Under 300ms lab LCP 15%75%
Vue 4,841 sitesOver 1,500ms lab LCP 44%600 to 1,500ms lab LCP 26%300 to 600ms lab LCP 18%Under 300ms lab LCP 12%75%
React 2,227 sitesOver 1,500ms lab LCP 40%600 to 1,500ms lab LCP 29%300 to 600ms lab LCP 19%Under 300ms lab LCP 12%66%
Over 1,500ms lab LCP 600 to 1,500ms lab LCP 300 to 600ms lab LCP Under 300ms lab LCP
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 17,005 with desktop field data · 63,151 sites with synthetic paint milestonesBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
5

Synthetic paint milestones or the framework

Does the framework explain the synthetic paint milestones difference?

On jQuery, 88% of sites with under 300ms lab LCP synthetic paint milestones have a good LCP, against 57% of jQuery sites with over 1,500ms lab LCP. Within jQuery, sites with under 300ms lab LCP have a good LCP more often. On Vue, 88% of sites with under 300ms lab LCP synthetic paint milestones have a good LCP, against 62% of Vue sites with over 1,500ms lab LCP. Within Vue, sites with under 300ms lab LCP have a good LCP more often.

How clean lab paint timings translate to real-user field LCP

Synthetic paint milestones measure your page without real-user cellular latency or cold device caches. A page that already takes over 1.5 seconds in a fast lab environment rarely survives real-world mobile networks. Across 10,190 sites (16.1%) painting under 300ms in the lab, 89% pass field LCP (1.3s median), dropping to 57% (2.3s median) on the 32.4% (20,465) over 1,500ms.

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 17,005 with desktop field data · 63,151 sites with synthetic paint milestonesBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
6

Understanding synthetic paint milestones

Serve cached full-page HTML and remove render-blocking head scripts so unthrottled lab LCP finishes under 600ms. On WordPress, 16.1% of sites paint under 300ms in the lab (89% good field LCP) while 32.4% exceed 1,500ms (57% good field LCP).

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 17,005 with desktop field data · 63,151 sites with synthetic paint milestonesBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
Related signals Total Blocking Time (lab) → Main-thread CPU (lab) → Document lifecycle (lab) → By Arjen Karel · 63,295 crawled WordPress sites (17,005 with desktop Chrome field data, 63,151 sites with synthetic paint milestones, October 2026) · How we measured