INP Replaces FID: What the New Core Web Vital Means for Your Site

On 12 March 2024, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) officially replaced First Input Delay (FID) as one of Google’s three Core Web Vitals. If your site feels sluggish when people tap or click, this change matters.

What INP measures

FID only measured the delay before the first interaction was processed. INP looks at the responsiveness of all clicks, taps and key presses during a visit and reports one of the slowest. In simple terms: how quickly does the page visibly respond when someone does something?

What is a good score?

Google’s guidance is that an INP of 200 milliseconds or less is good, while above 500 milliseconds is poor. You can see your field data in Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report and in PageSpeed Insights.

Common causes of poor INP

• Heavy JavaScript that blocks the main thread.
• Third-party scripts such as chat widgets, trackers and ad tags.
• Large page structures that take time to update after a click.
• Complex animations triggered by user actions.

How to improve it

Remove scripts you do not need, load third-party code later, break long tasks into smaller pieces and keep the page structure lean. Test on a mid-range phone rather than a fast laptop, because that is closer to what many visitors use.

Responsiveness is now part of how Google judges page experience, and, more importantly, it is part of how customers judge you.