Google Lighthouse is undergoing significant changes to enhance performance insight audits, integrating various performance tools into a unified Performance Panel. The Insights sidebar now delivers Lighthouse-like information, consolidating multiple audit advices into single insights and retiring some outdated advice.
To maintain consistency and leverage improvements, these insights will be integrated back into Lighthouse, impacting users who rely on specific audit names or result formats. The transition will occur with the upcoming Lighthouse 13 release, scheduled for October 2025, after which old audit data will be unavailable.
Renamed and Consolidated Audits
Several audits have been renamed and consolidated, including:
- cls-culprits-insight: Replaces
layout-shifts,non-composited-animations,unsized-images - document-latency-insight: Replaces
redirects,server-response-time,uses-text-compression - dom-size-insight: Replaces
dom-size - interaction-to-next-paint-insight: Replaces
work-during-interaction - lcp-discovery-insight: Replaces
prioritize-lcp-image,lcp-lazy-loaded,lcp-phases-insight - legacy-javascript-insight: Replaces
legacy-javascript - render-blocking-insight: Replaces
render-blocking-resources
Note that combined audits cannot be selectively disabled.
Removed Audits
Certain audits have been removed due to their diminished relevance:
- first-meaningful-paint: Replaced by LCP
- no-document-write: Rarely an issue in first-party scripts
- offscreen-images: Deprioritized by browsers
- uses-passive-event-listeners: Rarely an issue
- uses-rel-preload: Risks of over-recommendation
- third-party-facades: Limited relevance and concerns from developers
Other performance audits, along with those for Accessibility, SEO, and Best Practices, remain unaffected by these changes.
Migration to New Insights Audits
New insights are now available in the Lighthouse JSON, allowing API consumers to start migrating in preparation for the removal of old audits in Lighthouse 13. Lighthouse 12.6 will introduce a toggle feature for users to switch between old and new audit views, with plans to default to the new insights in a June 2025 release.
Documentation for the new audits will be available on developer.chrome.com before the transition, while old documentation will remain accessible for legacy versions. Feedback on these changes can be shared through a GitHub discussion.
