44 Astonishing Website Load Time Statistics (2025)

Last weekend, I watched my teenage niece try to visit a fashion blog on her smartphone. She waited maybe four seconds, and after the loading screen never produced an entire webpage, she said “nope” and moved on to another website.

It’s not just children either. People don’t have patience for slow-loading websites.

If your website loads too slowly (because of poorly written code, inadequate caching, a bad web host, or unoptimized images), your users will leave.

Here are some fascinating website load time statistics to highlight the importance of a fast website.

If you operate an online business that earns more than $100,000 every day, you could lose $2.5 million in sales each year for every second of webpage loading delay.¹

That is one instance in which speed directly correlates to money.

With fierce competition in eCommerce, even one second in website loading delay will result in an increased bounce rate and decreased activity on a website. In fact, for every second of site loading delay, conversions on an eCommerce website will reduce by 7%.¹

Consumers face this situation often. They may fill their online carts with products, but slow load times at checkout frustrate them.

Eventually losing patience, they switch to another platform that offers a better shopping experience, which may inspire longer-term loyalty. And 40% of online shoppers feel similarly, as they would abandon their cart if checkout pages were too slow.¹

An unavailable website is actually part of the whole website load time equation, because an unavailable website technically means the page load times are the worst they can get.

And mobile internet users claim unavailable websites are one of the most common problems with page loads on a mobile device, as 38% of those users have encountered an unavailable website in the past 12 months.¹

Have you ever told a friend when a website really made you mad? Perhaps the checkout took too long, or everything was hard to read, or maybe there were too many pop-up promotions.

Lots of other people do the same thing, as 44% of all online shoppers tell their friends about poor website experiences, especially slow page load speeds.¹

In the game of speed and consistency, you need to deliver the best overall user experience to stay on top. A one-second delay in website load time reduces customer satisfaction by 16%.¹ Talk about fine margins.

Surprisingly, 30% of all mobile users will wait around 6-10 seconds before abandoning a website. Even more shocking is that 20% of mobile users will wait 20+ seconds.

Having said that, website owners should still strive for blazing fast mobile page load speeds, since a significant portion of users like to abandon websites in 1-5 seconds.¹

Customers appreciate the speed and efficiency of websites. While website loading delays can have negative impacts, an improvement in website loading speeds can reward a company. A natural improvement of 0.1 second in site load time can increase online retail conversions by 8.4%.²

Webpages that load quickly are more likely to attract and keep customers. On average, a webpage takes 2.5 seconds to load on a desktop computer.²

Visitors may avoid a business with slow webpage loading speeds, as they do not understand the attention economy, which is key to success.

Online surfing is significantly faster (3.44x or 244% faster) on a computer than on a mobile device.³ To put it into perspective, the average website page takes 6.1 more seconds to load on a mobile device when compared to a computer (2.5 seconds).

If a webpage on a mobile browser takes more than three seconds to load, 53% of visitors will leave the page, further highlighting the importance of optimized webpage loading times on mobile.³

Data shows that 25% of website visitors will abandon a site if it takes more than four seconds to load.¹ This means you could lose 25% of potential customers if your website loads more than 1.5 seconds slower than the average webpage loading time of 2.5 seconds.³

Desktop users have the lowest bounce rate average of 50%, followed by tablet users (51.6%), and mobile users (56.8%).³ That may mean people prefer desktops and tablets for more in-depth research.

Obviously, the longer the webpage load time, the greater the website’s bounce rate. A webpage load time of 10 seconds on mobile increases the bounce rate by an astonishing 123%.³

If you operate an eCommerce business, this statistic is significant. For every second of webpage load time between zero and five seconds, website conversion rates drop by 4.42%.³ So, the quicker the better.

It may be possible to buy the same product from multiple online retailers, and we often compare pricing on several platforms before making a purchase decision. Many consumers may prefer an online retailer due to its faster webpage loading speed.

In fact, 70% of online shoppers report that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an eCommerce site.³

It is much easier to switch between webpages on a desktop when compared to a mobile device. Hence, it’s not surprising that desktop users average 3.4 webpage visits per session.³

Average Pages Per Session By Industry

Given how popular sports such as football, basketball, and cricket have frenzied fan followings, it is easy to understand why the sports industry has the most year-on-year mobile sessions, with 200 million.³

We often search for cool scientific facts, and those facts are regularly compiled as lists on single webpages. But, many of those science sites struggle with user-friendliness. That gives the science industry the highest mobile bounce rate of 66.37%.³

Move aside, window shopping, e-window shopping is the new trend. Desktop users average 5.01 webpage visits on eCommerce (retail) websites per session.³ This is higher than any other industry.

In terms of performance and website load time, websites built on GoDaddy fare the best, with GoDaddy scoring a solid 92.06 out of 100.³

To put it into perspective, the webpage loading speed of a site built on GoDaddy is 1.48 seconds, which is more than a second less than the average webpage load time.

As an additional perk, GoDaddy offers a free domain name as well (as do most top web hosts).

WooCommerce fares poorly as a desktop website builder, scoring just 69.5 out of 100.³

It is an important eCommerce plugin for WordPress websites, and unfortunately, it slows down those websites considerably. It is understandable, though, as many eCommerce websites that use the WooCommerce plugin manage large online stores with a vast collection of images.

To improve the performance of a WordPress website that runs WooCommerce, opt for a fast web host that offers WordPress-specific optimizations.

The next dominant category of internet users, those using desktops, are responsible for 29.5% of all website traffic. While mobile traffic trumps desktop traffic by more than 45%, desktop sessions result in a higher number of average pages (31% more) visited.³

A little more than four million sessions come from tablet users each year, which is 2.3% of all website traffic. But tablet users average a higher number of pages per session (3.1) compared to mobile users (2.6).³

A long website load time will lead to a high bounce rate. And not only will customers leave your website faster, but they’ll decide never to return.

In fact, 88% of internet users decide never to revisit a website if they’ve deemed it to have a poor user experience, most notably with weak page load speeds.⁴

If your website shows up on the first page of Google Search results, you are doing things correctly. Top-ranked websites on Google Search have an average load time of just 1.65 seconds.⁵ That is 0.85 seconds quicker than the average webpage loading speed.

If your website loads in less than two seconds, it will experience a low average bounce rate of 9%.⁶ If you manage to secure this bounce rate (a top web host could help considerably), you are in an elite company, as a bounce rate of 26% to 40% is acceptable worldwide.⁷

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one webpage. The average bounce rate for eCommerce platforms is a whopping 47%. Most websites have a bounce rate ranging between 26% to 70%.⁷

It is impossible to convert all visitors into paying customers. While a bounce rate of 26% to 40% may sound excessive, it is considered excellent as most websites have a higher bounce rate.⁷

If you tick all the right boxes and deliver a website that loads in one second or less, you are set up for success. A one-second website load time maintains what’s called a seamless flow of thought, which makes users feel more in control and stress-free.⁸

Given that nearly 70.7% of the global population owns a mobile device, it is not surprising that mobile users dominate the web.⁹ And an impressive 68.2% of all website visits come from mobile users.³

Imagine losing 10% of your audience for a second of site load delay — BCC suffers that fate. Fortunately, a reduction in website loading time seems to have a similarly enormous impact on companies the size of the BBC.

Yahoo! saw a 9% increase in web traffic when it decreased its page load time by 0.4 seconds.¹⁰

Most mobile internet users (73%) encounter slow websites, but that is not the extent of the inconvenience.

More than half (51%) encountered a website that received an error, froze, or crashed, 48% experienced website formatting issues, and 38% encountered an unavailable website.¹¹

Fortunately, most of these issues can be solved by implementing Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs).

These pages are ultra-fast and load almost instantly. Given how mobile browsing is considerably slower than desktop browsing, I recommend all mobile website owners consider the technology.

Many mobile phone users (46%) do not like waiting for a page to load.¹¹ The most surprising part about this statistic is that it isn’t higher. This just goes to show that traits like customer loyalty and patience do exist.

If your eCommerce website takes too long to load, chances are that customers will switch to another website. In fact, 14% of eCommerce users will switch to another platform if they have to wait for a webpage to load.¹¹

No one wants to wait in a long queue to pay their bill at a mall. Similarly, online shoppers don’t enjoy eCommerce websites that offer a slow checkout process.

Nearly half (46%) of online shoppers will return to a website that offers quick checkout, displaying customer loyalty.¹¹

There are more than 327.58 million smartphone users in the U.S., with a smartphone penetration rate of an astounding 92%. And that number is only expected to rise over time.¹²

And roughly 230 million U.S. smartphone users (74%) abandon mobile websites that take more than five seconds to load.¹¹

Non-optimized media files like images could drastically slow down your site, as they account for 21% of a website’s total weight.¹³ You need to find the right balance between image size and quality to ensure website speed optimization.

With a vast number of small blogs and low-budget businesses on the internet, 60% of the marketers lack the developer resources or the knowledge to incorporate AMP technology on their mobile websites.¹⁴

This is unfortunate, as AMPs are basically a stripped-down HTML version, allowing mobile browser pages to load almost instantly.

The global median download speed for mobile internet is 90.64 Mbps. If your mobile internet service provider (ISP) offers a download speed around that mark, it is doing its part.¹⁵

In some cases, your internet speed may be the sole reason a website loads slowly on your device. The global median fixed broadband download speed is 98.31 Mbps.¹⁵

If your internet speed is slower than this, it may be time to talk to or change your broadband provider.

Most website owners understand the importance of the attention economy and employ all necessary techniques to ensure fast website load times.

If you reside in Singapore, you need not worry about slow internet speeds spoiling the party, as Singapore has the world’s fastest average fixed broadband speed of 345.33 Mbps.¹⁶

The United Arab Emirates has the world’s second-fastest average fixed broadband speed of 313.55 Mbps, followed by Hong Kong, Iceland, and France.¹⁶

IONOS is the cheapest web host in the industry, and it is well-reviewed by the HostingAdvice team.

Websites powered by IONOS are even quicker than GoDaddy, taking a mere 1.23 seconds to load.¹⁷ In comparison, websites built on other popular web hosting platforms, such as Bluehost and HostGator, take 1.36 seconds and 1.59 seconds to load, respectively.

The average customer attention span is just eight seconds.¹⁸ Sadly, the attention span of a goldfish is actually longer, at 9 seconds¹⁹.

There’s a reason TikTok and YouTube Shorts are so popular.

A slow website not only consumes a significant amount of time but also puts off potential customers. The first step to building a fast website is to choose a reliable web host. An ideal web hosting partner will offer ample bandwidth, caching techniques, a CDN, and robust overall infrastructure to ensure quick page loading times.

1. https://blog.kissmetrics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/loading-time.pdf
2. https://www.nostra.ai/blogs-collection/website-performance-conversion-rate
3. https://www.tooltester.com/en/blog/website-loading-time-statistics/
4. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/website-statistics/
5. https://electroiq.com/stats/website-load-time-statistics
6. https://www.reffine.com/en/blog/How-page-speed-impacts-your-bounce-rate
7. https://www.soocial.com/bounce-rate-statistics/
8. https://www.speedcurve.com/blog/psychology-site-speed
9. https://datareportal.com/global-digital-overview
10. https://web.dev/learn/performance/why-speed-matters?anr=good&anrId=19570731.652e19beb588ae042d7c7dd85fc6e21f
11. https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/building-websites/website-load-time-statistics/
12. https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1145056/smartphone-users-in-the-united-states
13. https://kinsta.com/blog/optimize-images-for-web/
14. https://unbounce.com/online-marketing/why-marketers-should-implement-amp/
15. https://www.statista.com/statistics/896779/average-mobile-fixed-broadband-download-upload-speeds/
16. ​​https://www.statista.com/statistics/896772/countries-fastest-average-fixed-broadband-internet-speeds/
17. https://www.ionos.com/hosting/web-hosting.html
18. https://dozanu.com/insights/blog/attention-span-of-your-average-customer/
19. https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/