# PageSpeed Insights review (2026): is it any good? > Free Google speed test with real-user Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. PageSpeed Insights is Google's free web page speed test. For any public URL it shows how real Chrome users experienced the page over the past 28 days, taken from the Chrome UX Report, and runs a Lighthouse test on mobile and desktop with scores for performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO. An API returns the same results for use in scripts and other tools. - **Category:** Technical SEO & Site Audits - **Made by:** Google - **Website:** https://pagespeed.web.dev - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Too light for watching a whole site, as it tests one URL per run with no monitoring. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, PageSpeed Insights is free to use. - **Pricing model:** Free - **Free plan:** Open to anyone in a browser with no account: enter a URL for field data and a Lighthouse report. The API works with or without a free API key. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | Real-user Core Web Vitals, Lighthouse lab tests on mobile and desktop, shareable reports and the API. | Read from https://pagespeed.web.dev on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with PageSpeed Insights before buying. ## Key features - **Real-user data from CrUX:** Shows the 75th percentile of LCP, INP, CLS and FCP, plus TTFB, from real Chrome users over the past 28 days, with the share of good, middling and poor visits. - **Core Web Vitals assessment:** A pass or fail on LCP, INP and CLS for the page, falling back to the whole origin when the page alone has too little data. - **Lighthouse lab test:** Runs Lighthouse 13 on a simulated mid-range phone and on a desktop, scoring performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO from 0 to 100. - **Audits and suggestions:** Each category lists audits that explain what slows the page down or breaks best practice, and what to change. - **Shareable reports:** A link to a report keeps a snapshot of the results for up to 30 days. - **PageSpeed Insights API:** The v5 API returns Lighthouse results as JSON; an API key is recommended for frequent automated tests. ## Good for - Checking one page's Core Web Vitals the way Google measures them - Comparing what real visitors see with a controlled lab test - Developers adding speed checks to scripts through a free API ## Worth knowing - Tests one URL per run, and a shared report link keeps its snapshot for only 30 days. - Real-user data appears only for public pages with enough Chrome visits; otherwise only the lab test is shown. - Lab tests run from a Google data center in North America, Europe or Asia, and scores vary from run to run. - Google plans to drop real-user data from the API and points developers to the CrUX API instead. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 3.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. PageSpeed Insights shows how real Chrome users experienced a page over the last 28 days and runs a Lighthouse test on mobile and desktop, free and with no account. But it tests one URL at a time, low-traffic pages get no real-user data, lab scores vary from run to run, and shared reports only last 30 days. - **Value for money: A.** Free, from Google, with real-user data, Lighthouse tests on mobile and desktop, shareable reports and an API. Nothing to buy. - **Free plan and trial: A.** Open to anyone in a browser with no account, and the API works with or without a free key. - **Features: C.** Real-user LCP, INP, CLS and FCP from CrUX, a Core Web Vitals pass or fail, and Lighthouse scores with audits and suggested fixes. The gaps it lists: one URL per run, no monitoring or history past a 30-day link, and no field data for pages with too few visits. - **Ease of use: B.** No rating on record, and nothing to set up: type a URL and the report appears. Making sense of the audits takes some knowledge of how pages load. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, with a free v5 API that returns Lighthouse results as JSON. It draws on Lighthouse and the Chrome UX Report. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Google's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among technical SEO tools - PageSpeed Insights's GPA of 3.2 is higher than 81 of the 83 other technical SEO tools we grade, and level with 2. - It stands best on free plan and trial (A, above 62 of 83) and worst on features (C, above 10). - PageSpeed Insights has no paid plan. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/technical-seo ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** PageSpeed Insights is free, so making your own would save you nothing. And it is not the kind of software a weekend replaces. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.2 is higher than 81 of the 83 other technical SEO tools we grade. - You could not: Speed tests run from real browsers on a schedule. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Lighthouse and Chrome UX Report among them, and has an API. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Lighthouse, Chrome UX Report **Tags:** Page speed, Public API ## Alternatives - [GTmetrix](https://toolgpa.com/tools/gtmetrix): Page speed testing with Lighthouse reports, monitoring and an API. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/gtmetrix-vs-pagespeed-insights) - [WebPageTest](https://toolgpa.com/tools/webpagetest): Page speed tests from real browsers in locations around the world. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pagespeed-insights-vs-webpagetest) - [Lighthouse](https://toolgpa.com/tools/lighthouse): Google's open-source audit of page speed, accessibility and SEO. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/lighthouse-vs-pagespeed-insights) - [DebugBear](https://toolgpa.com/tools/debugbear): Page speed and Core Web Vitals monitoring with lab tests and RUM. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/debugbear-vs-pagespeed-insights) - [Chrome UX Report](https://toolgpa.com/tools/chrome-ux-report): Google's public dataset of real Chrome users' Core Web Vitals. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/chrome-ux-report-vs-pagespeed-insights) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://pagespeed.web.dev - https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about - https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/get-started - https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/release_notes Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/pagespeed-insights Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).