46 Website Page Load Time Statistics For 2025 (Data + Trends)
Looking for page load time statistics? I’ve got you covered.
Over the last few years, optimizing your website’s speed and performance has become an increasingly important part of SEO.
In this post, I’ll be sharing important data about page load time that SEO & marketing professionals need to know this year. All these stats come from the latest industry reports and studies.
Top picks
- The average page load time globally is 2.5 seconds on desktop and 8.6 seconds on mobile (ToolTester)
- The average page load time of the top 20 websites in the US is 1.08 seconds (Blogging Wizard)
- China has the fastest average page load time of any country (Backlinko)
- 86% of websites load in under 5 seconds (Portent)
- The number of websites achieving a ‘good’ PageSpeed score is up +50% (desktop) and +106% (mobile) over the last 5 years (HTTP Archive)
- Page weight (i.e. size) has the greatest impact on page load time (Backlinko)
- Every +1 second improvement in page load speeds boosts conversion rates by +17% (Bidnamic)
The importance of fast page load times
Let’s start by looking at some statistics that highlight just how important page load time is, and why it matters.
1. 8% of teams say improving website speed is their most effective SEO strategy
Search Engine Journal (SEJ) asked SEO teams what the most effective SEO they’ve used recently is and 8% of them pointed to efforts to optimize their website speed and performance.
Nonetheless, most respondents still didn’t think website load time was as important as their overall content strategy (20.2%), topic clustering (11.4%), or link building (10.8%).
Source: SEJ
2. 5.1% of SEOs say they measure page speed more than any other metric
SEJ also asked SEO pros ‘Which metric did you use most to measure SEO performance in the last 12 months?’.
5.1% of those surveyed answered ‘page speed’, making this one of the most important metrics in SEO, alongside others like CTR, traffic, keyword rankings, etc but up there.
Source: SEJ
3. Bounce probability increases 32% when page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds
According to data from Google, the probability of a bounce (that’s when a visitor leaves your website without taking any action) increases by 32% if your web page load time increases from 1 second to 3 seconds.
What’s more, it increases by 90% from 1 second to 5 seconds. From 1 second to 6 seconds, it increases by 106%. And from 1 second to 10 seconds, it increases by 123%.
The upshot of this is clear: If you want to keep visitors on your site and convert them, it’s important to keep your page load time as low as possible.
Source: Deloitte & Google
4. 70% of consumers say page speed impacts their willingness to buy
Page load time doesn’t just matter in terms of SEO. For online retailers, it can also have a big impact on your bottom line. The longer your pages take to load, the less likely visitors are to make a purchase.
Source: Deloitte & Google
5. Latency is the #1 reason consumers abandon mobile sites in the US
Latency (i.e. delays in page loading) is the top reason that US visitors leave mobile sites, according to a recent report.
Source: Deloitte & Google
6. The average internet user will only wait up to 8 seconds for a website to load
A Forbes Advisor survey asked 2,000 adults in the US how long they were willing to wait for a website to load and found that 8 seconds was the average.
38% of the respondents said a number between 7 and 10 seconds, 29% said somewhere between 3 and 6 seconds, 14% said 11 to 14 seconds, 10% said 15 seconds or more, 4% said less than 3 seconds, and 5% weren’t sure.
Source: Forbes Advisor
7. Conversion rates increase by 17% for every second a site loads faster
On average, every second you shave off your page load times correlates to a 17% higher likelihood that your site visitors will convert.
Source: Bidnamic
What’s the average page load time?
Now it’s time for the million-dollar question. How long does it take website pages to load, on average? Let’s look at some more stats to find out…
8. The average website page load time is 2.5 seconds on desktop…
That is according to a comprehensive analysis by ToolTester that looked at the top 100 website pages worldwide.
Source: ToolTester
9. …and 8.6 seconds on mobile
Mobile page load times tend to be much slower than desktop. ToolTester’s analysis found the average load time on mobile was over 3x longer.
Source: ToolTester
10. The average page load time on page 1 of Google is 1.65 seconds
Websites that rank on the first page of Google have an average page load time of 1.65 seconds according to another recent study. That’s significantly faster than the average identified by ToolTester.
Source: Blogging Wizard
11. Pages ranking #1 in Google have an average desktop PageSpeed score of 60…
Alpha Efficiency analyzed the top ranking results on Google for 1,000 different search queries and found that websites that rank in position one for their target keywords have an average desktop PageSpeed performance score of 60.
This is a useful benchmark for SEO. If you’re trying to rank, a desktop PageSpeed score of 60 may be a good goal post to aim for.
Source: Alpha Efficiency
12. …and an average mobile PageSpeed score of 31
Google’s PageSpeed test provides both a desktop performance score and a mobile performance score. This stat suggests that it’s more difficult to achieve a good score on mobile than on desktop.
Source: Alpha Efficiency
13. The average page load time of the top 20 US websites is 1.08 seconds
Blogging Wizard performed a speed test on the 20 most-visited websites in the US with Pingdom and found the average load time was 1.08 seconds when accessed from a server in Washington D.C.
Source: Blogging Wizard
14. The average page load time of the top 10 US ecommerce stores is 1.96 seconds
Blogging Wizard also ran a Pingdom speed test on the top 10 ecommerce stores in the US by visitor numbers and found they had an average page load time of 1.96 seconds.
Source: Blogging Wizard
15. 82% of B2B and 86% of B2C website pages load in <5 seconds
The vast majority of website pages now load in 5 seconds or less.
For B2C, the number of websites hitting that benchmark has increased from 81% in 2019 to 86% today.
Source: Portent
16. Top 1,000 websites load speed +0.3 seconds faster than average
When compared to the average top 10 million websites, the top 1000 websites load 0.3s faster.
Source: DebugBear
17. The average website page takes ~88% longer to load on mobile
87.84%, to be specific. This is based on Backlinko’s analysis of 5.2 million website pages.
Source: Backlinko
Average page load time by metric
Various metrics can be used to measure page load time. Next, we’ll look at some industry benchmarks for specific page speed metrics.
18. The median First Contentful Paint (FCP) is 2.1 seconds (desktop) | 3.4 seconds (mobile)
FCP tells us how soon after opening a page the page’s primary content becomes visible.
Source: HTTP Archive
20. The median Time to Interactive (TTI) is 3.3 seconds (desktop) | 12.2 seconds (mobile)
TTI tells us how long it takes for a page to become responsive to user input after it’s opened.
Source: HTTP Archive
21. The median DOMContentLoaded is 2.6 seconds (desktop) | 5 seconds (mobile)
DOMContentLoaded tells us the length of time between opening the page and the initial HTML document being completely parsed and loaded.
Source: HTTP Archive
22. The median onLoad time is 5 seconds (desktop) | 8.2 seconds (mobile)
onLoad tells us the length of time between when the page is opened and when all the resources on that page (images, CSS, etc.) have finished downloading.
Source: HTTP Archive
23. The median JavaScript Boot-up Time is 0.5 seconds (desktop) | 3.1 seconds (mobile)
JavaScript Boot-up Time tells us how much CPU time it takes for a JavaScript engine to parse, compile, and execute scripts per page.
Source: HTTP Archive
24. The median Speed Index is 3.8 seconds (desktop) | 6.2 seconds (mobile)
Speed Index tells us how long it takes for the contents of the page to become visibly populated after it’s opened.
Source: HTTP Archive
25. The average Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is 1.3 seconds
LCP tells us how soon after opening a page the largest content element becomes visible.
According to DebugBear’s analysis, the average LCP is 1.3 seconds (1.1 seconds on desktop, 1.4 seconds on mobile).
Source: DebugBear
26. The average Time to First Byte (TTFB) is between 0.4 and 0.5s
TTFP tells us how long it takes for the first byte of the HTML response to be received by the client after a visitor opens the page.
Source: DebugBear
How page load time makes website visitors feel
The stats below show how even the smallest difference in page load time (as little as a tiny fraction of a second) can have a big impact on the way internet users feel.
27. Pages must load in <0.1s for users to feel like they loaded ‘immediately’…
Google’s user performance data highlights how an increase in time to load can impact customer focus and perception. The data shows that users only feel like the results of their actions (i.e. page clicks) are ‘immediate’ if the time to load is between 0 and 100ms (under 0.1 seconds).
Any longer than that, and the connection between the user action and the website reaction is broken—users will experience a perceptible delay.
Source: Deloitte & Google
28. …in <0.3s for users to feel like loading a page isn’t a ‘task’…
With a time to load under 0.3s, users don’t see loading a page as a task.
But if a page takes over 0.3 seconds to load, for most users, loading pages or changing views will begin to represent a ‘task’.
Note, though, that that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re frustrated. Between 0.3s and 1s, changing or loading pages feel like a ‘natural and continuous progression of tasks’.
Source: Deloitte & Google
29. …in <1 second to avoid making the user lose focus…
Once the time to load reaches 1 second or more, users begin to lose focus on the task they’re performing.
Source: Deloitte & Google
30. …and in <10 seconds to avoid making the user give up altogether
After 10 seconds (10000 milliseconds), users become frustrated and are likely to abandon the task at hand, which means giving up on opening the webiste page. These users might never come back to your site.
How a 0.1-second improvement in page load speed impacts ecommerce
A study by Google and Deloitte looked at 20.5 million user sessions with online retailer websites to assess how an improvement of 0.1 seconds in each of the four speed metrics impacted online shopper behaviors.
They found that…
31. Conversions (transactions) increase by +8.4%
On average, getting your site to load just 0.1 seconds faster increases your conversion rate by 8.4%.
Source: Deloitte & Google
32. Average order values increased by +9.2%
A 0.1s increase in speed correlates with a 9.2% increase in AOV on average. This is due to improved funnel progression rates.
Online shoppers have to click a lot of different pages to add items to their basket. Decreasing load time encourages them to add more items by making it faster and easier for them to explore product options.
Source: Deloitte & Google
33. Page views per session increase by +5.2%
A 0.1s increase in speed leads to 5.2% more page views, on average, according to data from Deloitte.
Source: Deloitte & Google
34. Product listing page bounce rates reduce by -5.4%
On mobile, a 0.1s increase in product listing page load speeds reduces the bounce rate on those pages by -5.4%.
The effect is more modest on product details pages (-1.9%) and website homepages (-0.6%).
Source: Deloitte & Google
How a 0.1-second improvement in page load speed impacts lead generation
The same study by Google and Deloitte also looked at 505k user sessions on lead generation pages to see how an improvement of 0.1s in the four speed metrics impacted results.
They found that…
35. Form completions increase +21.6%
A site speed improvement of 0.1s correlated increased the percentage of users that progressed from the first step of the form to form submission by 21.6%, on average.
Source: Deloitte & Google
36. Informational page bounce rate reduced -8.3%
On, a 0.1s improvement in the time it takes to load informational pages reduces bounces by -8.3%.
Source: Deloitte & Google
Page load time optimization statistics
Below, you’ll find statistics that highlight factors that impact page load times and reveal tips to help you optimize and improve your website performance.
37. Total page weight has the biggest impact on Fully Loaded page speed
According to Backlinko, the best thing you can do to improve your page load speed is to reduce page weight. Light pages load 486% quicker, on average, when compared to large pages.
Source: Backlinko
38. CDN use has the biggest impact on TTFB
On desktop, the use of a CDN (content delivery network) has the greatest impact on a website’s Time to First Byte. And on mobile, it has the third biggest impact.
Source: Backlinko
39. CacheFly has the best page speed performance of any CDN
According to Backlinko’s analysis, 60.5% of websites using CacheFly have a ‘fast’ page speed performance, compared to just 16.5% of those that use Akamai (the bottom of the list).
As a result of this huge variance, use of CDNs actually correlates with worse desktop page speed overall. But that changes depending on your provider—the best CDNs can significantly improve page speed, and the worst can harm it.
Source: Backlinko
40. Each 3rd party script increases page load time by +0.0341s (+34.1 ms)
Most websites run at least some 3rd party scripts (e.g. Google Analytics, social share buttons, Salesforce, Hotjar, etc.).
However, as this stat shows, it helps to use as few as possible. Every additional script you run increases page load time by a small fraction of a second.
Source: Backlinko
41. Using responsive images is the best way to optimize your images for page loading speed
Backlinko looked at how different image optimization approaches impacted LightSpeed scores and found that using Responsive Images (images that dynamically adapt to fit the browser window size) resulted in the best Lighthouse speed score (86.9).
That was followed by deferring offscreen images (81.4), optimizing images e.g. via compression (78.1), and using WebP images (59.5).
Source: Backlinko
42. GitHub is the fastest web hosting provider
Another way to optimize your page loading speeds is to use a fast web host.
According to Backlinko’s analysis, Github had the strongest TTFB performance on desktop and mobile. However, GitHub isn’t a ‘normal’ web host as GitHub pages only serve static resources.
Other top-ranking web hosts by TTFV include Weebly, Netlify, and Seravo. Automattic, Siteground, and Wix rank in the bottom 3 on both desktop and mobile.
Source: Backlinko
43. GoDaddy is the fastest-loading website builder
ToolTester analyzed all the leading website builders to assess their performance and load speed. They found that GoDaddy came out on top with the highest performance score (92.06) of any CMS, and the lowest TTI (1.1 seconds).
ToolTester hasn’t explained their methodology in detail, so it’s not clear how each of the CMS was tested. As such, I’d suggest taking this with a pinch of salt.
Source: ToolTester
Misc. page load time statistics
44. The percentage of websites with a ‘good’ PageSpeed score is up +50.1% (desktop) and +106.2% (mobile)
Data from Google’s CrUX shows that, as of last month, 55.1% of websites passed Google’s Core Web Vitals (which measures page loading speed, as well as other metrics) with a ‘good’ experience on desktop. And 46.6% did the same on mobile.
In comparison, only 36.7% of websites had achieved the same score on desktop as of October 2019, and just 22.6% had done so on mobile. That represents an increase of +50.1% and +106.2% respectively.
What does this tell us? The internet is getting faster. Websites are increasingly performing better in Google’s Core Web Vitals tests, indicating they’re prioritizing page load speeds and the user experience.
Source: HTTP Archive
45. Twitter is the fastest-loading of the world’s top 100 websites
ToolTester analyzed the world’s top 100 sites based on Moz’s top 500 rankings and compared their page load time benchmarks.
According to their analysis, Twitter had the highest performance score on desktop (100/100) of any top-100 site and a TTI of just 0.23 seconds.
Source: ToolTester
46. China has the fastest TTFB load time of any country
That’s on both desktop and mobile, but particularly on desktop. Other top-ranking countries with page speeds above the global average include Japan and Germany.
The US has a relatively average page speed when compared to other countries. And India, Brazil, and Australia are among the worst performers.
Source: Backlinko
Final thoughts
Page load times matter and the stats we discussed above prove that.
If your website is slow then you’re going to lose sales and people will bounce. In some cases, they probably won’t come back.
The slower, the more sales and visitors you’ll lose.
So, work on making sure your website is as fast as it can be.
Not sure how? There are a bunch of tools on the market that don’t require much technical experience. And if you use WordPress, there are a number of speed optimization plugins you can use. NitroPack is a good example worth checking out.
Related reading:
- Link Building Statistics (Data + Trends)
- ChatGPT Statistics (Users, Growth, and Revenue)
- Yandex Statistics You Need To Know
Sources:
- Alpha Efficiency
- Backlinko
- Bidnamic
- Blogging Wizard
- DebugBear
- Deloitte & Google
- Forbes Advisor
- HTTP Archive
- Portent
- SEJ
- Statista
- ToolTester