www.privateinternetaccess.com speed test — 20 Oct 2026

Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 15:37 UTC. Grade C (76/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/

20 October 2026 at 15:37 UTC · Free test · report pt_12a31342b62e
Grade
C
76/100
Performance82/100
Structure68/100

11 audit(s) passed, 5 need work

First byte (TTFB)345 msmeasured from this server
Fully loaded1.24 sfirst byte + slowest asset
Requests26document + assets
Page weight2.57 MBcompressed transfer
HTML document52.3 KBbr
ProtocolHTTP/3cloudflare
Third-party2.52 MBother hosts

Where the first byte went

  • DNS lookup 68 ms 20%
  • TCP connect 23 ms 7%
  • Server wait 254 ms 74%

Measured on the connection that fetched the HTML. Every other request on the page waits for the end of this bar before it can start.

How this page compares

First bytefaster than 66% of 4,999 pages tested here345 ms against a median of 449 ms
Page weightheavier than 86% of 4,999 pages tested here2.57 MB against a median of 650.3 KB
Fully loadedfaster than 86% of 4,999 pages tested here1.24 s against a median of 1.84 s
Requestssends more requests than 100% of 4,999 pages tested here26 against a median of 26

Every report published here is in this comparison, so it is a reference population of pages tested from one server - not a benchmark of the whole web.

What these numbers mean

  • The first byte arrived in 345 ms. That is workable, and the cheapest win left is caching or a warmer connection.
  • The page transfers 2.57 MB over 26 request(s). Images files are 98% of it, so resize and recompress the largest images before anything else.
  • The HTML itself arrives br-compressed.
  • It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
  • 98% of the weight comes from other hosts (analytics, fonts, embeds), which also means their slow day becomes your slow day.
  • The largest element painted at 604 ms, inside the 2.5 s Google calls good.
  • Layout shift is 0.165 (good is under 0.1): something without a reserved size is loading late - an image, an ad, or a font swap.
  • The main thread was blocked for 119 ms in total, which is not enough to feel.

Fix first: Image delivery and format - Serve WebP or AVIF with a JPEG fallback, size images to the space they occupy, and lazy-load anything below the fold. Images are usually more than half of a slow page.

Read on one shared server, not a visitor's phone: use it to compare pages against each other, not as a promise about every connection. We fix what these tests find.

Screenshot

What the page looks like

Loaded in headless Chromium on this server. Click an image to open it full size.

Mobile screenshot of www.privateinternetaccess.com
Mobile 390 × 844 · 162.2 KB · page is 6000 px tall

Browser render

The same URL loaded in a real browser, so these are the readings curl cannot produce. The grade above is still built from the server measurements.

Largest contentful paint604 msgood is under 2.5 s
Cumulative layout shift0.165under 0.1 is stable
Total blocking time119 mslong tasks during load
First contentful paint604 msfirst content on screen
Browser page weight3.38 MB80 request(s), scripts included
Largest contentful paint604 ms
Goodgood under 2.5 s, poor over 4 s
Cumulative layout shift0.165
Needs improvementgood under 0.1, poor over 0.25
Total blocking time119 ms
Goodgood under 200 ms, poor over 600 ms

Page weight by type

What the page is made of

Images 25 requests
2.52 MB 98%

Transfer size, compressed as sent. 26 request(s) in total, 2.57 MB across all of them.

Top issues

Image delivery and format

high impact

2 image(s) over 200 KB and 1 large image(s) still served as JPEG or PNG.

Fix: Serve WebP or AVIF with a JPEG fallback, size images to the space they occupy, and lazy-load anything below the fold. Images are usually more than half of a slow page.

Render-blocking resources

high impact

8 render-blocking resource(s) in the document head (3 script(s), 5 stylesheet(s)). The page cannot paint until each one arrives.

Fix: Add defer or async to scripts that do not change the first paint, inline the critical CSS, and load the rest with media="print" plus an onload swap.

Total page weight

high impact

The page transfers 2.57 MB across 26 request(s), with the document itself at 52.3 KB.

Fix: Work through the heaviest assets first: images, then fonts, then third-party scripts.

Third-party weight

medium impact

2 third-party host(s) serve 2.52 MB of this page. Each one is another DNS lookup, TLS handshake and point of failure you do not control.

Fix: Self-host the libraries you can, drop the tags you cannot justify, and preconnect the ones you keep.

Avoid extra redirects

medium impact

1 redirect hop(s) before the page load started, each one a full round trip before the first byte.

Fix: Link to the canonical URL (and make sure http, the apex domain and www all point at it) so no visitor pays a redirect first.

Waterfall

Slowest requests

IMAGESdev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-long-hp/Combined-Shape.png
892 ms
IMAGESassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/Cybermonth21/av-hp.png
870 ms
IMAGESassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/pia-homepage/privacy.png
868 ms
IMAGESdev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-long-hp/privacy-month.png
862 ms
IMAGESdev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-long-hp/Path%20125962.png
862 ms
IMAGESassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/Cybermonth21/dip-hp.png
857 ms
IMAGESassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/img/frontend/pia_menu_logo_light.svg
853 ms
IMAGESassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/experiments/refresh-hp/righ…
852 ms
IMAGESdev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-long-hp/Shape.png
839 ms
IMAGESdev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-homepage/server-1.png
837 ms

Each bar is one request's own response time, scaled to the slowest. Assets were fetched in parallel, so the bars overlap in real time rather than stacking. first party third party

RequestTypeStatusTimeSize
https://dev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-long-hp/Combined-Shape.png 3rd partyimages200892 ms359 B
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/Cybermonth21/av-hp.png 3rd partyimages200870 ms25.2 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/pia-homepage/privacy.png 3rd partyimages200868 ms76.9 KB
https://dev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-long-hp/privacy-month.png 3rd partyimages200862 ms12.7 KB
https://dev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-long-hp/Path%20125962.png 3rd partyimages200862 ms393 B
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/Cybermonth21/dip-hp.png 3rd partyimages200857 ms25.9 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/img/frontend/pia_menu_logo_light.svg?v=30107 3rd partyimages200853 ms14.8 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/experiments/refresh-hp/right-arrow.svg 3rd partyimages200852 ms190 B
https://dev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-long-hp/Shape.png 3rd partyimages200839 ms430 B
https://dev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-homepage/server-1.png 3rd partyimages200837 ms9.6 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/img/frontend/pia/sticky-banner/halloween26.png?v=30107 3rd partyimages200836 ms60.7 KB
https://dev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-long-hp/virus.png 3rd partyimages200836 ms14.6 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/experiments/refresh-hp/google-ratings.svg 3rd partyimages200834 ms1.8 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/Frame-1-a.png 3rd partyimages200830 ms264.7 KB
https://dev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/campaigns/default/pia-lock-grey.svg 3rd partyimages200830 ms1.3 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/campaigns/valentine2023/exit-intent/icon-lock.svg 3rd partyimages200829 ms555 B
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/pia-homepage/open-internet.png 3rd partyimages200828 ms80.6 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/campaigns/summer26/store-ratings-1-desktop-light.svg 3rd partyimages200825 ms2.7 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/campaigns/halloween26/halloween.svg 3rd partyimages200824 ms1.83 MB
https://dev-assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/pia-long-hp/forcefield.png 3rd partyimages200819 ms26.4 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/campaigns/halloween26/Award.svg 3rd partyimages200819 ms417 B
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/pia-homepage/security.png 3rd partyimages200810 ms82.9 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/pia/experiments/refresh-hp/store-ratings-1-desktop-light.png 3rd partyimages200809 ms3.3 KB
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/photos/shares/campaigns/valentine2023/exit-intent/icon-shield.svg 3rd partyimages200805 ms308 B
https://assets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com/img/frontend/open_globe.svg?v=30107 3rd partyimages200800 ms551 B
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