www.snopes.com speed test — 20 Oct 2026
Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 14:01 UTC. Grade E (54/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.
Where the first byte went
- DNS lookup 5.10 s 97%
- TCP connect 26 ms 0%
- Server wait 113 ms 2%
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
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 took 5.24 s. Everything else waits for that number, so the server is where to start: caching, a slow query, or an overloaded host.
- The page transfers 964.9 KB over 26 request(s). Javascript files are 49% of it, so defer what is not needed for the first screen, and drop tags nobody uses.
- The HTML itself arrives br-compressed.
- It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
- 57% of the weight comes from other hosts (analytics, fonts, embeds), which also means their slow day becomes your slow day.
Fix first: Server response time (TTFB) - Cut server think time: page cache, query indexes, fewer synchronous calls to third parties inside the request. Connection setup is distance, so a nearer region or a CDN edge helps instead.
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.
The headless browser did not capture this page when the test ran, so only the server measurements are shown.
Page weight by type
What the page is made of
Transfer size, compressed as sent. 26 request(s) in total, 964.9 KB across all of them.
Top issues
Server response time (TTFB)
high impactThe first byte arrived after 5236 ms. Of that, 113 ms was the server thinking and 5123 ms was connection setup. A first byte under 400 ms is what a visitor feels as instant.
Fix: Cut server think time: page cache, query indexes, fewer synchronous calls to third parties inside the request. Connection setup is distance, so a nearer region or a CDN edge helps instead.
Total page weight
medium impactThe page transfers 964.9 KB across 26 request(s), with the document itself at 91.6 KB.
Fix: Work through the heaviest assets first: images, then fonts, then third-party scripts.
Cache static assets
medium impact1 asset(s) answer without a Cache-Control max-age, so browsers revalidate them on every visit.
Fix: Version filenames on change and serve them with a long max-age plus immutable. That is what makes a returning visitor fast.
Third-party weight
medium impact5 third-party host(s) serve 549.3 KB 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 impact1 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
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
| Request | Type | Status | Time | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://mediaproxy.snopes.com/width/600/https://media.snopes.com/2026/10/voters_in_line_at_a_polling_place.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 38.9 KB |
| https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-Q9SR89WW85 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 5.15 s | 186.4 KB |
| https://dist.bigcrunch.com/lighthouse/main.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 5.15 s | 115.1 KB |
| https://dist.bigcrunch.com/cmp/cmp.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 5.15 s | 73.5 KB |
| https://mediaproxy.snopes.com/width/900/https://media.snopes.com/2026/10/voters_in_line_at_a_polling_place.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 72.5 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/design/assets/bundle.js?rev=44309cc7f579c89707fbfa4521607f175266650e | javascript | 200 | 5.15 s | 61.0 KB |
| https://mediaproxy.snopes.com/width/400/https://media.snopes.com/2026/10/facade_of_a_kroger.jpg 3rd party | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 23.1 KB |
| https://mediaproxy.snopes.com/width/400/https://media.snopes.com/2026/10/did_rioters_in_paris_and_marseille_target_synagogue_and_jewish_businesses_sparing_muslim_ones.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 21.3 KB |
| https://mediaproxy.snopes.com/width/400/https://media.snopes.com/2026/10/if_poll_workers_mark_your_ballot_is_it_disqualified_we_looked_into_the_claim.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 18.0 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/design/images/logo-main.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 17.2 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/apple-touch-icon.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 12.2 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/design/images/snopes_default_square.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 8.9 KB |
| https://applets.ebxcdn.com/ebx.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 5.15 s | 322 B |
| https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=38282683&cv=3.6.0&cj=1 3rd party | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 43 B |
| https://www.snopes.com/design/images/ifcn_badge.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 84.2 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/design/js/swiper-bundle.min.js | javascript | 200 | 5.15 s | 39.3 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/design/images/logo-main-shadow.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 23.7 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/design/images/badge_of_honor.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 15.4 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 12.2 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/apple-touch-icon-152x152-precomposed.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 11.2 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/design/images/NewsGuard_logo_white.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 7.4 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 11.2 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 8.9 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/apple-touch-icon-120x120-precomposed.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 8.9 KB |
| https://www.snopes.com/favicon-32x32.png | images | 200 | 5.15 s | 2.5 KB |
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