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PLS by Navigation AI speed

PLS by Navigation AI speed without noise

Vasil Dachev avatar
Written by Vasil Dachev
Updated over a month ago


What is PLS by Navigation AI speed

PLS by Navigation AI speed breaks down Perceived Load Speed (PLS) by how quickly the page was predicted and loaded by Navigation AI — grouped into four categories: Standard, Faster, Semi-Instant, and Instant. These labels reflect the level of preloading and speculative work done behind the scenes to accelerate the user's experience.

PLS measures how fast a page feels like it loads, based on when all meaningful elements are visually complete. Unlike traditional metrics, PLS emphasizes perceived speed — which is exactly what Navigation AI is built to enhance.



Healthy PLS by Navigation AI speed sample


Should you worry

In a healthy setup, PLS should be lowest in Instant and Semi-Instant sessions — indicating that Navigation AI’s speculative loading paid off. Faster sessions should be next, with Standard sessions being the slowest.

If the PLS values are aligned in this hierarchy, you're on the right track. But if Instant sessions are still showing high PLS — or worse, if they’re slower than Standard — that signals something is wrong with either prediction timing, execution, or render performance.

Unhealthy PLS by Navigation AI speed

An unhealthy PLS breakdown might show small or no difference across categories, or even cases where Instant sessions perform poorly. This suggests speculative loading isn’t triggering early enough or isn’t impacting actual visual load speed.

Resolving unhealthy PLS by Navigation AI speed

Go-to action plan to resolve an unhealthy PLS by Navigation AI speed:

  1. Ask Uxi to analyze your PLS by Navigation AI speed and suggest improvements.

  2. Use Filters to isolate slow Standard navigations and analyze their bottlenecks.

  3. Simulate LCP of the suspected breakdown to see if fixing it will resolve the PLS by Navigation AI speed impact. If yes, this is where the resolution focus should be.

  4. Use an automated optimization tool like Navigation AI to improve your PLS by Navigation AI speed.

  5. Once you’ve improved PLS, set an alert to be the first to know if it starts worsening again.

Try it yourself

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