Benchmark report
Is Google Fonts slow?
CSS load times from 5 cities
Fast globally
Google Fonts responds quickly from all 5 test locations. Singapore was fastest at 20 ms; Montreal took 101 ms.
- Fastest
- 20 ms
- Singapore
- Slowest
- 101 ms
- Montreal
- Successful requests
- 100%
- 5 locations
Response time around the world
Singapore20 ms
Amsterdam21 ms
Tokyo60 ms
San Francisco72 ms
Montreal101 ms
Why is Montreal slower?
Singapore and Amsterdam had the stylesheet in about 20 ms, Tokyo and San Francisco in 60 to 72 ms, and Montreal in 101 ms. In the fast cities there is almost nothing left to measure. Montreal’s extra time is spread across every phase: 21 ms to connect, 39 ms for the secure handshake and 40 ms waiting for the server. When every step stretches together, the likely cause is distance to the Google server that answered rather than one slow step.
Click the location to see each stage.
Montreal101 ms
Montreal- Finding the server
- 1 ms
- Reaching the server
- 21 ms
- Setting up security
- 39 ms
- Waiting for the server: most of the time
- 40 ms
- Receiving the response
- 1 ms
- Total
- 101 ms
Finding the server is measured once per location, so it sits outside these bars. Open a city to see it.
Bars show the typical request, so the parts add up to its total. Why
Compare all locationsHide the comparison
Click a city to see its stage-by-stage breakdown.
Amsterdam21 ms
Amsterdam- Finding the server
- 1 ms
- Reaching the server
- 2 ms
- Setting up security
- 6 ms
- Waiting for the server: most of the time
- 13 ms
- Receiving the response
- 0 ms
- Total
- 21 ms
San Francisco72 ms
San Francisco- Finding the server
- 12 ms
- Reaching the server
- 12 ms
- Setting up security
- 22 ms
- Waiting for the server: most of the time
- 37 ms
- Receiving the response
- 1 ms
- Total
- 72 ms
Montreal101 ms
Montreal- Finding the server
- 1 ms
- Reaching the server
- 21 ms
- Setting up security
- 39 ms
- Waiting for the server: most of the time
- 40 ms
- Receiving the response
- 1 ms
- Total
- 101 ms
Singapore20 ms
Singapore- Finding the server
- 6 ms
- Reaching the server
- 4 ms
- Setting up security: most of the time
- 8 ms
- Waiting for the server
- 7 ms
- Receiving the response
- 1 ms
- Total
- 20 ms
Tokyo60 ms
Tokyo- Finding the server
- 8 ms
- Reaching the server
- 3 ms
- Setting up security
- 12 ms
- Waiting for the server: most of the time
- 44 ms
- Receiving the response
- 1 ms
- Total
- 60 ms
Finding the server is measured once per location, so it sits outside these bars. Open a city to see it.
Bars show the typical request, so the parts add up to its total. Why
Google Fonts still feels slow?
- The font files are a separate request
- This page times the stylesheet from fonts.googleapis.com. The font files come from fonts.gstatic.com, a different host with its own cache. A slow stylesheet does not mean slow fonts, and a fast one does not rule them out.
- This is not a rendering benchmark
- How a page looks while fonts load, and how self-hosted fonts compare, are covered in our comparison article rather than here.
- Served by Google’s front end, cached per user
- Google marks the stylesheet private and varies it by browser, so no shared cache answers it and every request reaches Google. Each of our cities reached a different Google address. Google publishes no dedicated status page for Fonts that we know of.
Response time over the last 16 days
A dot marks a day well above that location’s usual level.
Show the numbers
| Day | Amsterdam | San Francisco | Montreal | Singapore | Tokyo | Mumbai |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 August 2026 | 28 ms | 80 ms | 66 ms | 22 ms | 57 ms | — |
| 28 August 2026 | 19 ms | 78 ms | 65 ms | 18 ms | 57 ms | — |
| 29 August 2026 | 20 ms | 84 ms | 58 ms | 17 ms | 55 ms | — |
| 30 August 2026 | 21 ms | 79 ms | 61 ms | 18 ms | 55 ms | — |
| 31 August 2026 | 19 ms | 78 ms | 62 ms | 18 ms | 58 ms | — |
| 1 September 2026 | 19 ms | 70 ms | 67 ms | 17 ms | 55 ms | — |
| 2 September 2026 | 32 ms | 72 ms | 60 ms | 22 ms | 60 ms | — |
| 3 September 2026 | 24 ms | 71 ms | 55 ms | 17 ms | 66 ms | — |
| 4 September 2026 | 19 ms | 87 ms | 56 ms | 17 ms | 59 ms | — |
| 5 September 2026 | 19 ms | 71 ms | 56 ms | 17 ms | 59 ms | — |
| 6 September 2026 | 17 ms | 80 ms | 63 ms | 18 ms | 57 ms | — |
| 7 September 2026 | 17 ms | 77 ms | 56 ms | 21 ms | 58 ms | 78 ms |
| 8 September 2026 | 19 ms | 98 ms | 63 ms | 16 ms | 55 ms | 78 ms |
| 9 September 2026 | 17 ms | 129 ms | 63 ms | 16 ms | 56 ms | 79 ms |
| 10 September 2026 | 17 ms | 103 ms | 110 ms | 16 ms | 53 ms | 78 ms |
| 11 September 2026 | 17 ms | 178 ms ▲ | 61 ms | 15 ms | 58 ms | 78 ms |
| 12 September 2026 | 17 ms | 79 ms | 74 ms | 19 ms | 57 ms | 82 ms |
About this measurement
GET fonts.googleapis.com/css2 · 20 requests per location · 20 August 2026
What we tested · Static file. The css2 stylesheet for Geist and Inter, about 2 KB of CSS from fonts.googleapis.com. Marked private, so every request reaches Google.
How LatencyRadar measures response time →
Technical details
Doesn’t measure: The font files themselves (fonts.gstatic.com), how a page renders while fonts load, or self-hosted fonts.
One Google Fonts surface: the css2 stylesheet request for Geist and Inter, about 2 KB of CSS from fonts.googleapis.com. This is the first request a browser makes when a page links Google Fonts. Google marks it private and varies it by browser, so a shared cache cannot answer it and every request reaches Google. It stands for the stylesheet step and the path to Google's nearest front end.
Not measured: the font files themselves, served from fonts.gstatic.com and usually the larger download; how a page renders while fonts load; and self-hosting, which our comparison article covers.
In the displayed 20 August run, Singapore and Amsterdam received the stylesheet in about 20 ms typical; Montreal took 101 ms. A visitor still has to download the font files after receiving the stylesheet. Compare those two requests separately when investigating slow text rendering.
| Test location | Typical response time | Slower response time | Requests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam | 21 ms | 44 ms | 20 |
| San Francisco | 72 ms | 76 ms | 20 |
| Montreal | 101 ms | 112 ms | 20 |
| Singapore | 20 ms | 23 ms | 20 |
| Tokyo | 60 ms | 74 ms | 20 |
Typical: half of the requests finished within this time (technical: p50). Slower: 95% of requests finished within this time (technical: p95). Statistics
- Request
- GET fonts.googleapis.com/css2
- Measured from
- Amsterdam · San Francisco · Montreal · Singapore · Tokyo
- Requests
- 100 requests · 20 from each of 5 cities · 20 August 2026
- Timings taken
- DNS, connect, TLS, waiting for the server, download
Google Fonts
https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Geist:wght@400;500;600;700;800&family=Inter:wght@400;500;600;700&display=swap
Independent measurement by LatencyRadar. Not affiliated with Google Fonts. · How we measure (v1.3)
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