First Contentful Paint (FCP)

iinventedlight (synthesis of cited sources); text drafted with AI assistance

First Contentful Paint (FCP)

Answer: First Contentful Paint (FCP) is the time from the start of navigation until the first piece of page content appears on screen. (S1)

What counts

Here "content" means text, images (background images included), <svg> elements, and any <canvas> element that is not plain white. (S1)
That differs from Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which targets the moment the main content has finished loading. (S1)
A good FCP is 1.8 seconds or less. (S1)
Check that target at the 75th percentile of page loads, with mobile and desktop measured separately. (S1)

Where it sits

Web Vitals is a Google initiative that gives one set of guidance on the quality signals that matter for user experience. (S2)
Core Web Vitals are the subset that applies to every web page; all site owners should measure them, and Google tools report them. (S2)

Claims

id: C1 claim: FCP is when any content first renders. source: S1 evidence: "because that's when the first text and image elements are rendered to the screen."
id: C2 claim: Content includes text, images, svg and canvas. source: S1 evidence: "<svg> elements, or non-white <canvas> elements"
id: C3 claim: Good FCP is 1.8 seconds or less. source: S1 evidence: "sites should strive to have a First Contentful Paint of 1.8 seconds or less."
id: C4 claim: Core Web Vitals apply to all pages. source: S2 evidence: "Core Web Vitals are the subset of Web Vitals that apply to all web pages"

Sources

[S1] First Contentful Paint (FCP) | Articles | web.dev. Google (web.dev). https://web.dev/articles/fcp . License: CC BY 4.0 (web.dev live page footer: 'the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License'; cite the page, not the archived repo). Accessed 2026-11-05.
[S2] Web Vitals | Articles | web.dev. Google (web.dev). https://web.dev/articles/vitals . License: CC BY 4.0 (web.dev live page footer: 'the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License'; cite the page, not the archived repo). Accessed 2026-11-05.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted).

License: CC-BY-4.0 · Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Sources: Google (web.dev), First Contentful Paint (FCP) | Articles | web.dev, CC BY 4.0 (web.dev live page footer: 'the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License'; cite the page, not the archived repo); Google (web.dev), Web Vitals | Articles | web.dev, CC BY 4.0 (web.dev live page footer: 'the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License'; cite the page, not the archived repo).

Cite this

Permanent ID: iil:note:4wa7v6p5

iinventedlight. 2026. "First Contentful Paint (FCP)." iinventedlight Library, iil:note:4wa7v6p5, version of 2026-11-04. https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/webdev-fcp/. License: CC-BY-4.0.

@misc{iil_note_4wa7v6p5,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{First Contentful Paint (FCP)}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-11-04},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/webdev-fcp/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:4wa7v6p5. License: CC-BY-4.0.},
}

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