Glossary

Plain-English SEO definitions, sourced from Google's documentation.

First Input Delay

A retired Core Web Vital that measured the delay between a user's first interaction and the browser starting to process it.

Definition

First Input Delay (FID) is a metric that measures the time from a user's first interaction with a page — such as a click or tap — to the moment the browser can begin processing the event handlers for that interaction. It was a measure of a page's initial responsiveness.

FID was a Core Web Vital with a 'Good' threshold of 100 milliseconds or less, measured at the 75th percentile. In March 2024 it was replaced as a Core Web Vital by Interaction to Next Paint (INP), which assesses responsiveness across the full lifetime of a page rather than only the first interaction. Google fully discontinued FID support in September 2024. References to FID remain useful for historical comparison, but current page experience assessment uses INP.

Examples

  • Historical reporting

    A performance report from early 2024 lists a site's FID at 90 ms, indicating a 'Good' rating before the metric was retired.

  • Migration to INP

    A team that previously tracked FID switches its dashboards to Interaction to Next Paint after FID stopped being a Core Web Vital in March 2024.

Sources

Related terms

Where QueryCatch uses this

Last updated: 16/05/2026

First Input Delay (FID) — Definition | QueryCatch | QueryCatch SEO Glossary