Google Updates Lighthouse: Transition to Performance Insight Audits with Major Changes

In May 2025, Google announced significant updates to Lighthouse — the website performance auditing tool. The familiar audit system is being replaced with a new format called Performance Insight Audits. These changes are substantial: some audits are being renamed, others merged, and several are being completely removed. The full transition is expected with the release of Lighthouse 13 in October 2025.

What Are Performance Insight Audits?

Performance Insight Audits represent a new approach to analyzing site performance. Instead of numerous individual audit checks, the new interface delivers insights — concise and user-friendly summaries that consolidate multiple pieces of audit advice. These are already available in the Performance panel of Chrome DevTools and will be fully integrated into Lighthouse by the end of 2025.

Key Changes

Renamed and Consolidated Audits

Several audits have been combined into unified insights, reducing duplication and improving usability. For example:

New Insight Name	Replaces Audits
cls-culprits-insight	layout-shifts, non-composited-animations, unsized-images
document-latency-insight	redirects, server-response-time, uses-text-compression
lcp-discovery-insight	prioritize-lcp-image, lcp-lazy-loaded, lcp-phases-insight
render-blocking-insight	render-blocking-resources
legacy-javascript-insight	legacy-javascript
interaction-to-next-paint-insight	work-during-interaction
dom-size-insight	dom-size

Important: Combined insights cannot be selectively disabled.

Removed Audits

Some audits have been removed due to low relevance or potential for misinformation:

• first-meaningful-paint — replaced by LCP
• no-document-write — rarely a concern in first-party scripts
• offscreen-images — deprioritized by modern browsers
• uses-passive-event-listeners — rarely impactful
• uses-rel-preload — prone to over-recommendation
• third-party-facades — limited relevance and developer concerns

How the Transition Will Work

• Lighthouse 12.6 introduces a toggle between old and new audit views.
• In June 2025, the new insights view will become the default.
• Lighthouse 13, scheduled for release in October 2025, will remove the old audits completely.
• Full documentation will be available on developer.chrome.com ahead of the change.
• Legacy documentation will remain available for older Lighthouse versions.

What This Means for Developers and Marketers

• If you use Lighthouse via API or integrated tooling, you must update your logic for parsing results.
• Old audit names will no longer work — begin your migration now.
• Digital marketers should take note of these changes when analyzing site performance and reporting results to clients.

Where to Share Feedback?

Google has opened a GitHub discussion thread for feedback and questions about the transition.

Our Tip

Start experimenting with the new insights now. Adapting your workflows before October 2025 will ensure smooth reporting and better performance monitoring. Lighthouse continues to evolve, and these updates aim to provide more relevant and accurate website insights. Would you like help adapting your Lighthouse reports to the new standards? Submit a request, and we’ll audit your website for you!

This article available in Ukrainian.