Does Recharge slow down a store?
In 7IT’s test of 367 US online stores, Recharge ran on 31 of them (8.4%). On the median store that loads it, it downloaded 127 KB and kept the phone busy for 0.09 s before the page could respond.
8.4%of 367 US stores run it
127 KBmedian download on stores that load it
0.09 smedian time the phone spends running it
Stores with it and without it.
| Stores | Median score | Main content | Blocking time | Apps on the page | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| With Recharge | 31 | 32 | 10.5 s | 1319 ms | 23 |
| Without | 336 | 34 | 12 s | 1274 ms | 20 |
Stores that run Recharge had a median score of 32, against 34 for stores without it. They also run more apps overall (a median of 23 against 20), so that gap is not all Recharge’s doing. The size and phone time above are Recharge’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 127 KB of it, and spend more than 0.10 s running it. Median Google phone-lab results, home pages only, September 2026. Method and limits in the study.
If you run Recharge.
- Load the subscription widget only on product pages that sell subscriptions, not site-wide.