studentaid.gov speed test — 20 Oct 2026
Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 13:56 UTC. Grade A (93/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.
Where the first byte went
- DNS lookup 78 ms 22%
- TCP connect 50 ms 14%
- Server wait 226 ms 64%
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 354 ms. That is workable, and the cheapest win left is caching or a warmer connection.
- The page transfers 938.5 KB over 26 request(s). Javascript files are 72% of it, so defer what is not needed for the first screen, and drop tags nobody uses.
- The HTML itself arrives gzip-compressed.
- It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
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.
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, 938.5 KB across all of them.
Top issues
Render-blocking resources
high impact3 render-blocking resource(s) in the document head (0 script(s), 3 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
medium impactThe page transfers 938.5 KB across 26 request(s), with the document itself at 4.4 KB.
Fix: Work through the heaviest assets first: images, then fonts, then third-party scripts.
JavaScript weight
medium impact1 JavaScript file(s) over 200 KB: main.3bd9dbc25a472cde.js (632.7 KB)
Fix: Split routes, remove unused dependencies, and prefer a two-file build (one pinned library, one application bundle) over many small ones.
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://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/livechat.css | css | 200 | 1.00 s | 1.8 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/akam/13/23bab502 | other | 404 | 980 ms | 16 B |
| https://studentaid.gov/GxLwlieZOzxLJ53v5iKlHgAN/XQQ3/aRx0UQ/LEQ0B/j4RJ1Uo | html | 404 | 960 ms | 430 B |
| https://studentaid.gov/assets/favicon/site.webmanifest | other | 200 | 945 ms | 203 B |
| https://studentaid.gov/assets/favicon/favicon-32x32.png | images | 200 | 931 ms | 2.0 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/assets/favicon/favicon-16x16.png | images | 200 | 921 ms | 831 B |
| https://studentaid.gov/main.3bd9dbc25a472cde.js | javascript | 200 | 914 ms | 632.7 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/assets/fonts/news-cycle-v16-latin-700.woff2 | fonts | 200 | 910 ms | 13.0 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/universal-navigation/universal-navigation/universal-navigation.js | javascript | 200 | 909 ms | 1.8 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/virtual-assistant-ui/virtual-assistant-ui/virtual-assistant-ui.js | javascript | 200 | 904 ms | 1.8 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/polyfills.aafa30dc365e05de.js | javascript | 200 | 903 ms | 12.0 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/assets/favicon/apple-touch-icon.png | images | 200 | 896 ms | 28.0 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/favicon.ico | images | 200 | 896 ms | 3.4 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/universal-navigation/universal-navigation/universal-navigation.esm.js | javascript | 200 | 888 ms | 2.6 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/runtime.60e17c2163dbc6a7.js | javascript | 200 | 888 ms | 2.1 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/assets/fonts/news-cycle-v16-latin-regular.woff | fonts | 200 | 885 ms | 16.0 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/assets/fonts/news-cycle-v16-latin-regular.woff2 | fonts | 200 | 882 ms | 12.9 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/akam/13/pixel_23bab502?a=dD0xOTQ0OTZlMjFhN2IxNjBiYTQ0ODE0NWY0NDAwMDJlZTAzZmM1M2NhJmpzPW9mZg== | html | 200 | 882 ms | 0 B |
| https://studentaid.gov/GxLwlieZOzxLJ53v5iKlHgAN/z5Q3SGuNOh5XwGLO/dnAHUg/RiMzE/Udsfhg | html | 403 | 876 ms | 441 B |
| https://studentaid.gov/GxLwlieZOzxLJ53v5iKlHgAN/XQQ3/aRx0UQ/OU0GD/kdnSShY | html | 404 | 876 ms | 430 B |
| https://studentaid.gov/assets/fonts/news-cycle-v16-latin-regular.ttf | fonts | 200 | 874 ms | 28.4 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/virtual-assistant-ui/virtual-assistant-ui/virtual-assistant-ui.esm.js | javascript | 200 | 867 ms | 2.3 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/assets/fonts/news-cycle-v16-latin-regular.eot | other | 200 | 866 ms | 14.4 KB |
| https://studentaid.gov/styles.9e5409b12b5252a9.css | css | 200 | 855 ms | 137.3 KB |
| https://tags.tiqcdn.com/utag/fsa/fsa-digital-platform/prod/utag.js 3rd party | javascript | 200 | 805 ms | 19.2 KB |
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