Responsive websites are essential in the current digital era. Anything other than quick, flawless experiences resulted in significant bounce rates and missed chances from visitors. Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is one important indicator that aids in evaluating and enhancing responsiveness.
Google introduced Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as a performance indicator to gauge the responsiveness of online pages.
It’s essential to comprehend INP and how to optimize for it if you want to raise your website’s search engine rankings. Your pages can appear lower in search results if this is the case.
In this post, we’ll go into great detail about what INP is, why it matters, and the tactics you can use to maximize this important performance indicator.

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What is Interaction to Next Paint (INP)?
INP measures the time it takes for a webpage to respond to user interactions such as clicks, taps, or key presses. Unlike other metrics, INP focuses on the user’s perceived responsiveness by tracking the delay between an interaction and the visual feedback provided by the webpage. This means INP offers a more user-centric view of performance compared to traditional metrics like First Input Delay (FID).
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a metric that gauges a website’s responsiveness to user interactions. It essentially measures the time between a user’s action (like a click or keypress) and the moment the webpage visually responds to it.
INP is considered a crucial Core Web Vital (CWV) as it directly impacts user experience (UX). A website with a low INP indicates that it responds quickly to user input, making the interaction feel smooth and responsive. Conversely, a high INP signifies sluggishness and can lead to a frustrating user experience.
Here’s a breakdown of what INP captures:
Since INP is a Core Web Vital, it can influence your website’s ranking on search engines like Google. So, optimizing your website for INP is essential for both a good user experience and potentially better search visibility.
Why INP Matters?
A high INP suggests that visitors to your website are waiting too long for a response. Frustration, a decline in engagement, and eventually users quitting your site can result from this. To maintain visitors’ engagement and satisfaction, optimizing INP guarantees a more seamless and responsive user experience.

User experience is given priority by search engines. Performance measurements are taken into account by Google in particular when ranking websites. More search rankings and increased organic traffic to your website might be attributed to a higher INP score.
INP, or Interaction to Next Paint, matters because it’s a key metric for assessing a website’s responsiveness, which directly impacts user experience. Here’s why:
- Focus on Overall Responsiveness: INP goes beyond just the initial load time. It considers how long it takes for the web page to respond to any user interaction, like clicking a button or scrolling. A low INP means the site feels fast and fluid, while a high INP leads to frustrating delays.
- Improved User Engagement: When users see a quick response to their actions, they’re more likely to stay engaged with the website. Conversely, slow response times can lead to users getting impatient and abandoning the site altogether.
- Impact on SEO: Since March 2024, INP is an official Core Web Vital metric used by Google to assess website experience. This means a good INP score can improve your search ranking and visibility.
In short, INP helps ensure your website feels snappy and responsive to users, which keeps them engaged and contributes to a better SEO performance.
How Interaction to Next Paint (INP) Works?
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a metric that gauges how responsive a webpage feels to a user’s actions. It measures the time it takes for the browser to display the first visual change on the screen after a user interacts with something, such as clicking a button or typing in a form.
Here’s a breakdown of how INP works:
- User Interaction: A user initiates an action on the webpage, like clicking a button.
- Browser Activity: The browser gets to work. It might need to send a request to the web server for additional data or process information to update the page.
- Rendering the Update: Once the browser has what it needs, it updates the webpage with the new information.
- INP Measurement: The time between the user’s initial interaction (step 1) and when the browser visually displays the update (step 3) is considered the INP.
INP focuses on responsiveness throughout the entire user visit, not just the initial page load. This is a big deal because research shows that most of a user’s time on a webpage is spent interacting with it after it’s already loaded.
The page responds very well to user interaction when the INP value is low.
INP is essential as a component of Core Web Vitals for the following reasons:
- Increased Consumer Satisfaction: It can be annoying for users to have to wait a long time for a web page to respond to their interactions when the INP value is high.
- Optimization for Search Engines (SEO): Google uses page experience cues, which include INP and other Core Web Vitals, to determine a website’s ranking on its results pages. Because of this, the INP SEO metric is quite significant.
- Lower Bounce Rate: The bottom line of your company may suffer if visitors leave your page due to a slow loading time.
Web interface responsiveness and interaction are captured by the Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measure, which is an essential tool in the field of web performance optimization.
Web developers can create smooth user experiences that are marked by quick reactions to user input and timely visual updates by understanding the fundamental elements and influencing aspects of INP and implementing proactive optimization techniques.
INP’s careful optimization becomes essential as it continues to reshape the digital environment and leads to the goal of unmatched user engagement and pleasure.
Next Pain Interaction (INP) as a Fundamental Web Resource
In March 2024, the First Input Delay (FID) measure was superseded by INP. Although INP and FID function differently, they are similar.
FID only evaluates how quickly a page loads upon initial online access. Conversely, after the page loads, Google’s INP statistic takes into consideration all user interaction delays throughout a visit.
The majority of a user’s time on a website occurs after it loads, according to data from Google. Therefore, INP is far more accurate than FID at measuring page interactivity.
INP is different from other Core Web Vitals such as Large Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). While LCP measures how quickly a web page displays its biggest features, CLS evaluates how much a site can change suddenly.
How to Calculate the Interaction with Next Paint (INP)?
Let’s examine the meaning of INP values before starting the Interaction to Next Paint assessment.
Milliseconds (ms) are used to measure INP. Anything under 200 ms is considered a good benchmark, whereas anything over 500 ms is considered to need improvement. Poor is defined as 500 ms or more.
An INP value can be influenced by several variables, including the size and complexity of a web page and the quantity of CSS and JavaScript files loaded.
With website speed testing tools, you may determine a website’s INP value. This kind of program can give you information on how well your Core Web Vitals metrics are working and how to adjust your website accordingly.
For evaluating INP and website performance, many people use Google PageSpeed Insights. It will conduct a site evaluation and offer specifics on best practices to follow. Additionally, you can observe how quickly your website loads on desktop and mobile devices.
PageSpeed Insights presents two different kinds of findings. The Chrome UX report, which compiles actual performance data from Chrome users, displays a site’s Core Web Vitals numbers in the upper area.
INP is typically measured in milliseconds (ms) and can be broken down into three key components:
- Input Delay (ID): This represents the time between the user’s interaction and the browser’s acknowledgment of that interaction. It encompasses the time taken by the browser to process the event and execute any associated JavaScript handlers.
- Event Handling (EH): Event handling refers to the browser’s execution of JavaScript code in response to the user’s interaction. This includes any computation, DOM manipulation, or network requests triggered by the event.
- Layout and Rendering (LR): Once the event handling is complete, the browser updates the webpage’s layout and initiates the rendering process to reflect the changes resulting from the user interaction. LR includes tasks like recalculating styles, reflowing the DOM, and painting the updated content onto the screen.
The total INP is the sum of these three components: INP = ID + EH + LR.
How to Optimize for Interaction to Next Paint (INP)?
Optimizing performance and user experience has become critical in the dynamic field of web development. Interaction with Next Paint (INP), which gauges the interval between user input and the ensuing visual response on the screen, is a vital parameter in this effort.
To enhance INP and ensure a smooth user experience, developers must focus on various optimization strategies. Here’s a detailed guide on how to optimize for Interaction with Next Paint.
1: Optimize the Execution of JavaScript:
For many websites, JavaScript is an essential component. While it provides a variety of interactive components, the performance of the site may be slowed down.
JavaScript executes in the main thread, which is in charge of rendering a web page. Inefficient code has the potential to stall the thread and stop the page from reacting to user input.
JavaScript plays a pivotal role in modern web applications, but its inefficient execution can significantly impact INP. To optimize JavaScript performance:
2: Hire Web Workers:
A feature that enables JavaScript to operate independently of the main thread is called web workers. They help carry out complicated duties in the background.
Let’s say you have a data-heavy, image- and video-rich WordPress website. To keep your UI from freezing, web workers can shift these complex JavaScript calculations to a background thread.
Web Workers enable parallel execution of scripts, thereby offloading CPU-intensive tasks from the main thread and improving INP. To harness the power of Web Workers:
3: Divide Up Lengthy Tasks:
Another technique to avoid main thread blocking is to break up lengthy JavaScript activities.
Let’s take the scenario of internet buyers browsing an e-commerce website. The main thread must retrieve, process, and render massive volumes of product data and images concurrently without breaking up lengthy operations, which takes a lot of time and resources.
The main thread is busy while this process is underway. As a result, the website loads slowly and is unable to react to further user input.
Long tasks can be divided into smaller portions that the web browser can complete at a time. This frees up the main thread to handle other important activities.
Long-running tasks can hinder responsiveness and delay INP, leading to a subpar user experience. To mitigate this issue:
4: Give Input Readiness Top Priority:
When a web page is prepared to react to user input, it is said to be input-ready. If it isn’t, the primary thread of the browser is typically occupied with other duties.
User inputs should be prioritized to deliver instantaneous feedback and maintain a responsive interface. To achieve this:
5: Provide Prompt Feedback:
Certain interactions, such as submitting a form with several data inputs, may cause observable response delays.
That’s where the prompt feedback is useful. This strategy provides consumers with a visible cue that their request has been accepted and is being processed by the website.
Users won’t question if their input has been recorded by the website if they receive immediate feedback. Even if the real processing time isn’t shortened, it may appear to offer speedier performance.
Feedback is essential for user engagement and satisfaction, particularly in interactive web applications. To provide timely feedback and enhance INP:
Optimizing for Interaction with Next Paint (INP) is crucial for delivering a seamless user experience in web applications. By prioritizing efficient JavaScript execution, leveraging Web Workers, dividing lengthy tasks, prioritizing input readiness, and providing prompt feedback, developers can significantly enhance INP and ensure optimal performance.
Incorporating these strategies into the development process will not only improve user satisfaction but also drive engagement and retention in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.
Common Issues Affecting INP
The performance of a website may make or break its success in the digital age we live in, where having an online presence is crucial for both individuals and organizations. Online visitors anticipate easily navigable pages, visually appealing content, and quick page loads.

However, several frequent problems can seriously impair a website’s functionality, frustrating visitors and sometimes costing businesses chances.
Here at ARZ Host, we explore three common problems that negatively impact the speed of websites: an excessive amount of JavaScript, a poor server response, and huge, unoptimized images.
1: JavaScript Overload:
JavaScript is a fundamental component of modern web development, enabling dynamic and interactive features that enhance user experience. However, excessive use of JavaScript can bog down a website’s performance, leading to slower load times and diminished responsiveness.
Common manifestations of JavaScript overload include delayed page rendering, unresponsive user interface elements, and increased CPU utilization.
One of the primary culprits behind JavaScript overload is the indiscriminate inclusion of third-party scripts and libraries. While these resources offer convenient solutions for various functionalities, each additional script adds to the overall page load time.
Moreover, poorly optimized or outdated JavaScript code can result in inefficiencies, such as excessive DOM manipulation or inefficient event handling.
To mitigate JavaScript overload, web developers should prioritize code optimization and minimize reliance on third-party scripts wherever possible. Techniques such as code minification, bundling, and asynchronous loading can significantly reduce the size and impact of JavaScript resources.
Additionally, regular code audits and performance profiling can help identify and address inefficiencies in JavaScript code.
2: Slow Server Response:
The responsiveness of a website is heavily influenced by the speed at which the server processes and delivers content to the client’s browser. Slow server response times can result from various factors, including inadequate server resources, network latency, and inefficient server-side processing.
Insufficient server resources, such as CPU, memory, and bandwidth, can lead to bottlenecks that slow down content delivery. Overloaded servers may struggle to handle concurrent requests, resulting in delayed responses and degraded performance.
Similarly, network latency, caused by factors such as geographical distance or network congestion, can prolong the time it takes for data to travel between the server and the client.
To address slow server response times, website owners should invest in robust hosting infrastructure capable of handling anticipated traffic loads. This may involve upgrading to dedicated or cloud-based hosting solutions that offer scalability and resource isolation.
Additionally, optimizing server-side code and database queries can improve processing efficiency and reduce response times. Content delivery networks (CDNs) can also help mitigate network latency by caching and serving content from edge servers located closer to the user.
3: Large, Unoptimized Images:
Images play a crucial role in enhancing the visual appeal of a website and conveying information effectively. However, large, unoptimized images can significantly impact page load times and consume excessive bandwidth, particularly on mobile devices and slower network connections.
Common issues associated with large, unoptimized images include slow image loading, increased data consumption, and reduced responsiveness.
High-resolution images intended for print or desktop viewing may be unnecessarily large for web display, leading to inflated file sizes and longer download times. Moreover, serving images in formats not optimized for the web, such as BMP or TIFF, can further exacerbate performance issues
To mitigate the impact of large, unoptimized images, web developers should adopt best practices for image optimization. This includes resizing images to appropriate dimensions, compressing them using lossless or lossy compression techniques, and selecting optimal file formats such as JPEG, PNG, or WebP.
Additionally, lazy loading techniques can defer the loading of off-screen images until they are needed, reducing initial page load times and conserving bandwidth.

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Conclusion
FID was replaced by INP, which stands for Interaction to Next Paint, a Core Web Vitals measure. It calculates how long it takes a website to react to user input. Your site responds faster when its score is lower.
INP and FID vary in that the former measures all user interaction delays throughout a session. When a website is first opened, only one element is the subject of the second metric.
Utilize PageSpeed Insights to calculate the INP of your website. The TBT measure for your website can also be used in case the data isn’t accessible.
There are various ways to optimize for INP: from employing web workers and streamlining your JavaScript execution to giving input readiness priority. Whatever the procedure, whenever you make changes, make a backup of your website in case something goes wrong.
FAQS (Frequently Asked Questions)
1: What is Interaction to Next Paint (INP)?
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a metric used to measure the time it takes for a web page to become interactive from the moment a user initiates an action (such as clicking a button or tapping a link) until the page responds visibly. It helps assess the responsiveness and user experience of web applications.
2: Why is INP important for web performance?
INP is crucial for ensuring a smooth and responsive user experience on websites and web applications. A low INP indicates that users can interact with the site quickly, leading to higher user satisfaction, increased engagement, and potentially better conversion rates. On the other hand, a high INP can frustrate users and result in higher bounce rates.
3: How is INP different from other performance metrics like First Contentful Paint (FCP) or Time to Interactive (TTI)?
While FCP measures the time it takes for the first content element to be rendered on the screen and TTI measures the time until a page is fully interactive, INP specifically focuses on the time it takes for user-initiated interactions to trigger a visible response from the web page. It provides insights into the responsiveness of the website to user actions.
4: What factors influence INP?
Several factors can impact INP, including the complexity of the web page’s JavaScript, the efficiency of event handlers and listeners, network latency, server response times, and the device’s processing power. Optimizing code, reducing render-blocking resources, and minimizing the impact of third-party scripts can help improve INP.
5: How can I improve INP for my website?
To improve INP, consider optimizing critical rendering paths, prioritizing the loading of essential resources, minimizing JavaScript execution time, utilizing browser caching, and adopting lazy loading techniques for non-critical content.
Additionally, ensure that your web server response times are optimized, and aim to minimize the number of HTTP requests needed to render the page. Regular performance testing and monitoring can also help identify areas for improvement.
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