theintercept.com speed test — 20 Oct 2026

Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 15:06 UTC. Grade B (87/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.

https://theintercept.com/

20 October 2026 at 15:06 UTC · Free test · report pt_36175ed15208

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Grade

87/100

Performance89/100

Structure85/100

14 audit(s) passed, 2 need work

First byte (TTFB)195 msmeasured from this server

Fully loaded1.48 sfirst byte + slowest asset

Requests26document + assets

Page weight2.26 MBcompressed transfer

HTML document25.0 KBbr

ProtocolHTTP/3nginx

Where the first byte went

DNS lookup 60 ms 31%
TCP connect 28 ms 14%
Server wait 107 ms 55%

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 93% of 4,999 pages tested here195 ms against a median of 449 ms

Page weightheavier than 84% of 4,999 pages tested here2.26 MB against a median of 650.3 KB

Fully loadedfaster than 71% of 4,999 pages tested here1.48 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 server answered in 195 ms, which is fast: almost all of the wait is the page itself, not the host.
The page transfers 2.26 MB over 26 request(s). Images files are 99% 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.
The largest element painted at 552 ms, inside the 2.5 s Google calls good.
The main thread was blocked for 70 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.

Desktop screenshot of theintercept.com — **Desktop** 1366 × 768 · 643.7 KB · page is 6000 px tall

Mobile screenshot of theintercept.com — **Mobile** 390 × 844 · 239.4 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 paint552 msgood is under 2.5 s

Cumulative layout shift0.000under 0.1 is stable

Total blocking time70 mslong tasks during load

First contentful paint504 msfirst content on screen

Browser page weight1.10 MB39 request(s), scripts included

Largest contentful paint552 ms

Goodgood under 2.5 s, poor over 4 s

Cumulative layout shift0.000

Goodgood under 0.1, poor over 0.25

Total blocking time70 ms

Goodgood under 200 ms, poor over 600 ms

Page weight by type

What the page is made of

Images 25 requests

2.23 MB 99%

Transfer size, compressed as sent. 26 request(s) in total, 2.26 MB across all of them.

Top issues

Image delivery and format

high impact

2 image(s) over 200 KB and 3 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.

Total page weight

high impact

The page transfers 2.26 MB across 26 request(s), with the document itself at 25.0 KB.

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