Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Why the page jumps under your finger, how the score is computed, and how to pin layout so it never moves.

You go to tap “Cancel,” an image loads above it, the whole page lurches down, and your finger lands on “Place order.” That lurch is a layout shift, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is the metric that scores how much your page jumps around. Good is ≤ 0.1.

Below is a checkout card. Load it with Reserve space off and watch the product image shove the buttons down right as you'd reach for them. Flip the toggle on and load again — the space is held, nothing moves, and CLS drops to zero:

Still think you'd dodge it in the wild? Prove it. Same physics, but now it's a game — tap Continue reading before the late-loading ad shoves it out from under your finger, then reserve the space and watch your mis-tap count (and the CLS) hit zero:

A layout shift happens when a visible element changes its start position between two frames. The key word is visible: a brand-new element appearing doesn't hurt your score by itself — it only counts when it pushes something the user could already see. And shifts the user caused (within 500 ms of a tap or keypress) are excused.

Each shift scores impact fraction × distance fraction. Impact is how much of the viewport the moving content touched (its area before and after, unioned). Distance is how far it moved, relative to the viewport. Drag the slider:

Those per-shift scores are summed within session windows — a burst of shifts less than 1 s apart, capped at 5 s — and your CLS is the worst window. Thresholds: ≤ 0.1 good, 0.1–0.25 needs work, > 0.25 poor.

1. Images & videos with no dimensions

Without width/height, the browser reserves zero space until the file loads, then snaps to full size. Always set dimensions (or an aspect-ratio for responsive images):

<!-- The browser reserves the right box before the file arrives -->
<img src="/hero.webp" width="1200" height="630" alt="…" />

/* Or, for fluid images, lock the ratio in CSS */
img { aspect-ratio: 16 / 9; width: 100; height: auto; }

2. Ads, embeds & injected content

Third-party content loads late and unpredictably. Reserve a min-height placeholder so the ad fills empty space instead of shoving content. For things like cookie banners, use an overlay that sits on top of the page rather than pushing it. And if a shift truly must happen, make it user-triggered so it's expected.

3. Web fonts (FOUT)

When your custom font swaps in for the fallback, differing metrics reflow the text. Preload critical fonts and pick a fallback with similar sizing (via size-adjust / font-display) so the swap barely moves anything.