www.gov.uk speed test — 20 Oct 2026
Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 12:26 UTC. Grade A (98/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.
Where the first byte went
- DNS lookup 37 ms 20%
- TCP connect 36 ms 20%
- Server wait 111 ms 60%
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 server answered in 184 ms, which is fast: almost all of the wait is the page itself, not the host.
- The page transfers 124.4 KB over 15 request(s), which is lean. Javascript files are 43% 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.
- The largest element painted at 1.20 s, inside the 2.5 s Google calls good.
- Layout shift is 0.239 (good is under 0.1): something without a reserved size is loading late - an image, an ad, or a font swap.
Fix first: Render-blocking resources - 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.
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.
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.
Page weight by type
What the page is made of
Transfer size, compressed as sent. 15 request(s) in total, 124.4 KB across all of them.
Top issues
Render-blocking resources
high impact4 render-blocking resource(s) in the document head (2 script(s), 2 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.
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://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/homepage/find-a-job-4d38717b0451da3bb223ddea7f681d79e48c1c022da5a08f16aba3f681503150.png | images | 200 | 533 ms | 1.4 KB |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/govuk-icon-180-d45a306f0549414cfa5085f16e4a3816a77558b139e5bc226f23162d1d0decb0.png | images | 200 | 519 ms | 7.3 KB |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/govuk_publishing_components/load-analytics-ff724c80496b9d34f978fe930106f9e76b7924f60371d38b278ba0fb0ba48774.js | javascript | 200 | 513 ms | 11.9 KB |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/app-promo/govuk-app-icon-0bca94cf05737106d8e80f32a66f773d7b6ff9b9652fc555917d855914309af0.png | images | 200 | 508 ms | 4.2 KB |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/views/_homepage-4b78ffd85484b305e392c489eec8af4fc215bd086f63d464f44372f72ad6d92b.css | css | 200 | 508 ms | 1.4 KB |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/govuk_publishing_components/rum-custom-data-b9e1806d1da2fa8ef1855d01aa71ba5eb0afc010dd2c4de3672cc7c7a39b0c8c.js | javascript | 200 | 501 ms | 191 B |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/govuk_publishing_components/vendor/lux/lux-measurer-d66192b1b665d415e1874e49a48138b7ae339548aa6cdb8687c7f9933e72b969.js | javascript | 200 | 498 ms | 695 B |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/application-6e189aff5de80d92bf053c7dce798dbed965a8583edaa42a6dc1c6f179457d0e.css | css | 200 | 492 ms | 41.7 KB |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/application-8899802f37c21a1a4208b45b8cfb7689aeaafae55e20d6ce572f3d77f52246ee.js | javascript | 200 | 491 ms | 39.9 KB |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/govuk_publishing_components/rum-loader-a65b10e18ceeba3bd8a2eac507c7f2c513cdc82f35097df903fdea87f1dc2e33.js | javascript | 200 | 489 ms | 329 B |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/homepage/cost-of-living-featured-4cd41cec449e0bd47e707812a5c3b5c52726bed0acb4f31c9b66548cc6ff6309.png | images | 200 | 486 ms | 1.3 KB |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/favicon-24f9fbe064118d58937932e73edafd1d50cb60f7bd84f52308382a309bc2d655.ico | images | 200 | 484 ms | 1.1 KB |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/favicon-d962d21b5bb443f546c097ea21b567cde639adef7370da45be5e349ba8d62d33.svg | images | 200 | 484 ms | 854 B |
| https://www.gov.uk/assets/frontend/homepage/national-insurance-featured-7169e3631b639dcfc7be22469daf155ad0aa7516143ff8cf2e6f95ba29c8656c.png | images | 200 | 475 ms | 1.2 KB |
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