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Lazy Loading — Prioritize Visible Content

Delay off-screen images, iframes, and scripts so visible content loads first and pages become interactive faster.

Resource Prioritization delays the loading of content that is not yet visible on your screen — images below the fold, embedded iframes, and off-screen resources — so Chrome can focus bandwidth and CPU on what you actually see first. The result is a faster time-to-interactive: the visible portion of the page is ready sooner, even if the full page takes the same total time to load.

How It Works

When a browser loads a page, it typically fetches all images, iframes, and scripts in the order they appear in the HTML — regardless of whether they are in the visible viewport. Resource Prioritization intercepts this behavior and defers requests for resources that are off-screen at the moment the page loads.

The deferral is dynamic: as you scroll and an off-screen resource enters (or approaches) the viewport, the request is released and the resource loads normally. From a user perspective, the page appears to load faster because the content you interact with first is ready sooner.

Settings

LevelWhat Gets DeferredAvailability
LowBelow-the-fold imagesFree
MedBelow-the-fold images and iframesFree
PROAll off-screen resources including some scriptsPRO

The default is Med. This setting provides a clear improvement in perceived load speed on content-heavy pages without the compatibility risk of PRO mode.

When to Use This

  • You visit long-form content pages (news articles, blog posts) with many images that load before you scroll to them
  • Pages feel slow to become interactive even though your connection is fast
  • You want to reduce initial bandwidth usage when loading pages on a metered or throttled connection
  • You use PRO level for maximum performance and want to defer script loading on off-screen sections

Combine Resource Prioritization with Font Optimization to reduce both download size and loading order overhead. Use Preloading to pre-fetch likely next pages while this feature ensures current-page resources are loaded efficiently.

Privacy

Resource prioritization is handled entirely within your browser using local logic. No page content, resource URLs, or scroll position data is transmitted anywhere. Everything runs on your device.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the same as browser-native lazy loading?
It complements native lazy loading. Native lazy loading requires site developers to add a `loading='lazy'` attribute. Resource Prioritization applies deferral automatically to pages that do not use native lazy loading, or extends coverage to additional resource types.
Will images below the fold still load eventually?
Yes. Resources are deferred, not blocked. As you scroll down and off-screen content approaches the viewport, it loads normally.
Can this break page layouts?
Occasionally, if a page's layout depends on knowing the dimensions of an image before it loads. Safe Mode can automatically recover pages that break under aggressive settings.
Does PRO level affect scripts?
Yes. PRO extends deferral to some off-screen scripts in addition to images and iframes. This is the most aggressive level and best paired with Safe Mode enabled.
Is this feature free?
Low and Med are free. PRO level requires a PRO subscription.

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