How to fix Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
INP measures how quickly the page reacts when a visitor taps or clicks. Google wants it under 200 ms. Long JavaScript tasks and heavy third-party scripts are the usual cause.
Step by step, with screenshots: Interaction to Next Paint (INP): what it is and how to improve it →
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What it is
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures how long a page takes to visibly respond after a visitor clicks, taps or presses a key. It looks at the interactions during the whole visit and reports roughly the slowest one, so a single frozen menu counts against you.
Google rates INP as good at 200 ms or less, needs improvement up to 500 ms and poor above 500 ms, at the 75th percentile of real visits. It replaced First Input Delay as a Core Web Vital in March 2024. INP can only be measured on real users, so getReport shows it from the Chrome UX Report when Google has enough data for your site; the lab metric Total Blocking Time is the best stand-in when it does not.
What a passing site looks like
- Interaction to Next Paint: passesfail · −10 ptseffort M
- Real-user Interaction to Next Paint: passesinfo onlyeffort M
1. Interaction to Next Paint
Why it matters. INP measures how quickly the page reacts when someone taps or clicks. Lab tools cannot simulate it, so this comes from real Chrome users; slow responses feel like a frozen page.
- Break up long JavaScript tasks and defer third-party scripts so the main thread is free when people interact.
- Respond to input visually first (a pressed state, a spinner), then do the heavy work.
- Reduce DOM size and avoid layout-heavy work inside click handlers.
2. Real-user Interaction to Next Paint
Why it matters. INP is how long the page takes to visibly react to taps and clicks, measured on real Chrome users over the last 28 days. Google's threshold for "good" is 200 ms.
- Cut long JavaScript tasks and heavy third-party scripts; see the INP finding above.
Questions people ask
How do I improve Interaction to Next Paint?
Give the browser's main thread less to do when people interact. Break long JavaScript tasks into chunks under 50 ms, remove or delay heavy third-party scripts such as chat widgets and tag-manager tags, and avoid re-rendering large parts of the page on every click. Show visual feedback first, then do the slow work. Total Blocking Time in the report points to the scripts that block most.
When did INP replace First Input Delay?
On 12 March 2024. First Input Delay only measured the delay before the browser started handling the first interaction, and most sites passed it easily. INP covers the whole response, from input to the next frame, for every interaction in the visit, so it catches sluggish pages that FID missed. Search Console and PageSpeed Insights now report INP instead of FID.
Why is INP poor on WordPress sites?
Usually because of the amount of JavaScript: page builders, sliders, pop-ups, cookie banners, chat and analytics tags all compete for the main thread, and each click waits behind scripts that are still running. Removing unused plugins, delaying non-essential scripts until the visitor interacts and replacing heavy widgets with lighter ones improve INP on most WordPress sites.
Why can't Lighthouse measure INP?
Because INP needs real people interacting with the page, and a lab test only loads it. Lighthouse reports Total Blocking Time instead, which counts how long the main thread is blocked during loading and tracks INP closely. Your real INP comes from the Chrome UX Report, which needs enough Chrome visitors over 28 days, so smaller sites may have no field data at all.
What is a good INP score?
200 ms or less is good, 200 to 500 ms needs improvement and above 500 ms is poor, measured at the 75th percentile of real visits over 28 days. Responses under about 100 ms feel instant. If your field INP is poor but lab tests look fine, the slow interactions are probably specific ones, such as opening a menu, filtering products or adding to cart.