What is largest contentful paint (LCP)?

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a metric that shows when the largest visible element on the screen loads and renders. Usually this is a heading, a large image, a block of text, a video preview, and so on.

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#What counts toward LCP

• <img>
• <video> (poster)
• background images via CSS (background-image)
• large text blocks (<h1>, <p>, and so on)

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#What does NOT count

• elements outside the viewport
• small icons, logos
• elements that appear after scrolling

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#Why it matters

LCP shows when the main content becomes available and visible to the user. That matters more than just "something first appearing" (as with FCP).

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#Example

If LCP = 2.4 seconds on the homepage, the heading or main image fully rendered 2.4 sec after loading started.

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#Norms (per Google)

• < 2.5 sec: good
• 2.5-4 sec: fair

4 sec: poor

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#Conclusion

LCP is the moment the user sees the main thing they came to the page for. The faster it happens, the better the perceived quality of the site.