www.pbs.org speed test — 20 Oct 2026
Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 12:37 UTC. Grade B (87/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.
Where the first byte went
- DNS lookup 58 ms 14%
- TCP connect 3 ms 1%
- Server wait 358 ms 85%
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 arrived in 419 ms. That is workable, and the cheapest win left is caching or a warmer connection.
- The page transfers 338.9 KB over 26 request(s). Images files are 70% of it, so resize and recompress the largest images before anything else.
- The HTML itself arrives gzip-compressed.
- It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
- 70% 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 1.36 s, inside the 2.5 s Google calls good.
- The main thread was blocked for 654 ms, so taps and scrolling wait while scripts run.
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.
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. 26 request(s) in total, 338.9 KB across all of them.
Top issues
Server response time (TTFB)
high impactThe first byte arrived after 419 ms. Of that, 358 ms was the server thinking and 61 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.
Render-blocking resources
high impact7 render-blocking resource(s) in the document head (1 script(s), 6 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.
HTML document size
medium impactThe document transfers 100.8 KB. A bloated document delays every other request, because nothing else can start until it is parsed.
Fix: Paginate long listings, move repeated markup into a template, and stop inlining large data URIs into the HTML.
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.
Strict-Transport-Security
low impactHSTS is not set, so the first visit on a hostile network can still be downgraded to HTTP.
Fix: Send Strict-Transport-Security with a max-age of at least six months. Add includeSubDomains once every subdomain is HTTPS.
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://image.pbs.org/video-assets/fiWpOg0-asset-mezzanine-16x9-rlp8IP1.jpg?format=webp&resize=1700x956.25 3rd party | other | 400 | 1.24 s | 183 B |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/PMXnHjr-show-poster2x3-3HvFDZt.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.06 s | 22.6 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/k1Gwt8I-show-poster2x3-EWWT8oy.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.06 s | 4.2 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/gHfqHqy-show-poster2x3-giFscnd.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.06 s | 3.9 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/gHfqHqy-show-poster2x3-giFscnd.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.05 s | 12.8 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/k1Gwt8I-show-poster2x3-EWWT8oy.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.05 s | 13.5 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/b4al9Ms-show-poster2x3-ZV23Klz.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.05 s | 5.1 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/39/AHPdzGz39tKOQyqVp6WQg.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 3.3 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/ffEe3AY-show-poster2x3-oQVx25I.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 25.5 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/b4al9Ms-show-poster2x3-ZV23Klz.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 23.3 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/6/G0oUBMJsWakD6U8F6zZjeg.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 8.0 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/PMXnHjr-show-poster2x3-3HvFDZt.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 5.1 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/video-assets/fiWpOg0-asset-mezzanine-16x9-rlp8IP1.jpg?format=webp&resize=320x180 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 8.5 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/ffEe3AY-show-poster2x3-oQVx25I.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 7.5 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/a875kXl-white-logo-41-me5R0cG.png?format=avif&resize=240x 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 3.5 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/msf0dRf-show-poster2x3-KMfT8Vf.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 11.4 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/msf0dRf-show-poster2x3-KMfT8Vf.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 3.9 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/DVdVtKQ-show-poster2x3-5STImWw.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 22.2 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/39/AHPdzGz39tKOQyqVp6WQg.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 13.3 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/1HNIyrb-show-poster2x3-7CL0uxp.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 12.4 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/e4ELU5j-show-poster2x3-O8rNtwE.jpg?format=avif&crop=227x341 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 9.8 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/DVdVtKQ-show-poster2x3-5STImWw.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 6.6 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/1HNIyrb-show-poster2x3-7CL0uxp.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 5.7 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/e4ELU5j-show-poster2x3-O8rNtwE.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 3.4 KB |
| https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/6/G0oUBMJsWakD6U8F6zZjeg.jpg?format=avif&crop=86x129 3rd party | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 2.7 KB |
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