AI SEO Glossary
What is INP?
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TL;DR — Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures how quickly a page responds to user interactions — clicks, taps, and keypresses — by tracking the time from each interaction to the next visual update, and reporting a representative worst case across the visit. Google's "good" threshold is 200 milliseconds or less at the 75th percentile. INP replaced First Input Delay (FID) as a Core Web Vital in March 2024 because FID only measured the first interaction's delay, while INP captures sluggishness anywhere in the session — including the add-to-cart and checkout taps that matter most on a store.
Definition & scope
INP problems are almost always main-thread problems: heavy JavaScript from apps, tag managers, and personalization scripts blocking the browser from painting a response. The fix is to do less work per interaction — break up long tasks, defer non-critical scripts, and audit third-party tags ruthlessly.
Because INP is a whole-session metric, lab tools underreport it; field data and real-user monitoring are how regressions actually get caught.
Related terms
- Core Web Vitals — INP is one of the three.
- LCP — the loading counterpart.
- CLS — the stability counterpart.
Related services
- Custom Website Development — script-diet and main-thread work.
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