First Contentful Paint (FCP)
FCP measures the moment the browser first renders text, image or another visible content element — the first signal that the page is alive.
First Contentful Paint marks the first 'signs of life': text, SVG, image or canvas. Under 1.8s is good, above 3s poor. FCP isn't in Core Web Vitals but is in Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights, and is a solid diagnostic metric: high FCP indicates slow server or render-blocking resources.
Example
A SaaS landing page has FCP 2.9s due to heavy Google Fonts. After switching to font-display: swap and self-hosted fonts, FCP drops to 0.9s.
Frequently asked questions
FCP or LCP — which matters more?
Both. FCP shows something happens (user satisfaction), LCP shows core content is visible (Core Web Vital). Optimise for LCP; FCP usually follows.
How do I improve FCP?
Inline render-blocking CSS, defer JS, extract critical CSS, webfont-display:swap, preconnect to third parties, use a CDN.
Related terms
Further reading
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