Does Google Analytics slow down a store?
In 7IT’s test of 367 US online stores, Google Analytics ran on 184 of them (50.1%). At first load it is light: a median of 2 KB and 0.00 s of phone time. Google’s test measures the first load only, so anything it loads after a visitor interacts is not in these numbers.
Stores with it and without it.
| Stores | Median score | Main content | Blocking time | Apps on the page | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| With Google Analytics | 184 | 31 | 12.5 s | 1717 ms | 26 |
| Without | 183 | 39 | 11 s | 859 ms | 13 |
Stores that run Google Analytics had a median score of 31, against 39 for stores without it. They also run more apps overall (a median of 26 against 13), so that gap is not all Google Analytics’s doing. The size and phone time above are Google Analytics’s own. On this sample there is no score penalty that can be pinned on it.
One in four stores that load it download more than 3 KB of it, and spend more than 0.00 s running it. Median Google phone-lab results, home pages only, September 2026. Method and limits in the study.
If you run Google Analytics.
- Analytics should be the lightest thing on the page. Load it with async or defer and keep one tool, not three overlapping ones.
- If several analytics tools answer the same question, keep the one the team actually opens.