2026 CWV thresholds (confirmed unchanged): LCP ≤ 2.5s, INP ≤ 200ms, CLS ≤ 0.1 at p75 field data
Created 2026-05-22
Claim: Google's official "Good" Core Web Vitals thresholds remain unchanged through 2026:
| Metric | Good (≤) | Needs Improvement | Poor (>) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | 2.5s | 2.5–4.0s | 4.0s |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | 200ms | 200–500ms | 500ms |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | 0.1 | 0.1–0.25 | 0.25 |
All measured at the 75th percentile of real-user field data (CrUX, 28-day rolling).
Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/core-web-vitals (last updated 2025-12-10 UTC); web.dev/articles/lcp; web.dev/articles/defining-core-web-vitals-thresholds.
Confidence: Verified (primary Google documentation).
Important refutation: Multiple SEO blogs claim Google tightened LCP to 2.0s and "elevated INP to primary signal" in the March 2026 core update. This is not confirmed by Google and contradicts current documentation. See REFUTED: "March 2026 LCP tightened to 2.0s / INP elevated" — no such Google announcement exists.
Referenced by (4)
- reference REFUTED: "March 2026 LCP tightened to 2.0s / INP elevated" — no such Google announcement exists depends-on
- reference Reference: 2026 performance budget — SMB marketing site (Candid default targets) depends-on
- reference Research brief: Page Speed as a Moat — why CWV separates the agencies from the freelancers (piece 9 of 15) relates-to
- reference The Economic Times (2021): LCP 4.5s→2.5s, CLS 0.25→0.09 → -43% bounce site-wide relates-to