Chrome 64 to deprecate the chrome.loadTimes() API

Philip Walton

chrome.loadTimes() is a non-standard API that exposes loading metrics and network information to developers in order to help them better understand their site's performance in the real world.

Since this API was implemented in 2009, all of the useful information it reports can be found in standardized APIs such as:

These standardized APIs are being implemented by multiple browser vendors. As a result, chrome.loadTimes() is being deprecated in Chrome 64.

The deprecated API

The chrome.loadTimes() function returns a single object containing all of its loading and network information. For example, the following object is the result of calling chrome.loadTimes() on www.google.com:

{
  "requestTime": 1513186741.847,
  "startLoadTime": 1513186741.847,
  "commitLoadTime": 1513186742.637,
  "finishDocumentLoadTime": 1513186742.842,
  "finishLoadTime": 1513186743.582,
  "firstPaintTime": 1513186742.829,
  "firstPaintAfterLoadTime": 0,
  "navigationType": "Reload",
  "wasFetchedViaSpdy": true,
  "wasNpnNegotiated": true,
  "npnNegotiatedProtocol": "h2",
  "wasAlternateProtocolAvailable": false,
  "connectionInfo": "h2"
}

Standardized replacements

You can now find each of the above values using standardized APIs. The following table matches each value to its standardized API, and the sections below show code examples of how to get each value in the old API with modern equivalents.

chrome.loadTimes() feature Standardized API replacement
requestTime Navigation Timing 2
startLoadTime Navigation Timing 2
commitLoadTime Navigation Timing 2
finishDocumentLoadTime Navigation Timing 2
finishLoadTime Navigation Timing 2
firstPaintTime Paint Timing
firstPaintAfterLoadTime N/A
navigationType Navigation Timing 2
wasFetchedViaSpdy Navigation Timing 2
wasNpnNegotiated Navigation Timing 2
npnNegotiatedProtocol Navigation Timing 2
wasAlternateProtocolAvailable N/A
connectionInfo Navigation Timing 2

The code examples below return equivalent values to those returned by chrome.loadTimes(). However, for new code these code examples are not recommended. The reason is chrome.loadTimes() gives times values in epoch time in seconds whereas new performance APIs typically report values in milliseconds relative to a page's time origin, which tends to be more useful for performance analysis.

Several of the examples also favor Performance Timeline 2 APIs (e.g. performance.getEntriesByType()) but provide fallbacks for the older Navigation Timing 1 API as it has wider browser support. Going forward, Performance Timeline APIs are preferred and are typically reported with higher precision.

requestTime

function requestTime() {
  // If the browser supports the Navigation Timing 2 and HR Time APIs, use
  // them, otherwise fall back to the Navigation Timing 1 API.
  if (window.PerformanceNavigationTiming && performance.timeOrigin) {
    const ntEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0];
    return (ntEntry.startTime + performance.timeOrigin) / 1000;
  } else {
    return performance.timing.navigationStart / 1000;
  }
}

startLoadTime

function startLoadTime() {
  // If the browser supports the Navigation Timing 2 and HR Time APIs, use
  // them, otherwise fall back to the Navigation Timing 1 API.
  if (window.PerformanceNavigationTiming && performance.timeOrigin) {
    const ntEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0];
    return (ntEntry.startTime + performance.timeOrigin) / 1000;
  } else {
    return performance.timing.navigationStart / 1000;
  }
}

commitLoadTime

function commitLoadTime() {
  // If the browser supports the Navigation Timing 2 and HR Time APIs, use
  // them, otherwise fall back to the Navigation Timing 1 API.
  if (window.PerformanceNavigationTiming && performance.timeOrigin) {
    const ntEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0];
    return (ntEntry.responseStart + performance.timeOrigin) / 1000;
  } else {
    return performance.timing.responseStart / 1000;
  }
}

finishDocumentLoadTime

function finishDocumentLoadTime() {
  // If the browser supports the Navigation Timing 2 and HR Time APIs, use
  // them, otherwise fall back to the Navigation Timing 1 API.
  if (window.PerformanceNavigationTiming && performance.timeOrigin) {
    const ntEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0];
    return (ntEntry.domContentLoadedEventEnd + performance.timeOrigin) / 1000;
  } else {
    return performance.timing.domContentLoadedEventEnd / 1000;
  }
}

finishLoadTime

function finishLoadTime() {
  // If the browser supports the Navigation Timing 2 and HR Time APIs, use
  // them, otherwise fall back to the Navigation Timing 1 API.
  if (window.PerformanceNavigationTiming && performance.timeOrigin) {
    const ntEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0];
    return (ntEntry.loadEventEnd + performance.timeOrigin) / 1000;
  } else {
    return performance.timing.loadEventEnd / 1000;
  }
}

firstPaintTime

function firstPaintTime() {
  if (window.PerformancePaintTiming) {
    const fpEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('paint')[0];
    return (fpEntry.startTime + performance.timeOrigin) / 1000;
  }
}

firstPaintAfterLoadTime

function firstPaintTimeAfterLoad() {
  // This was never actually implemented and always returns 0.
  return 0;
}

function navigationType() {
  if (window.PerformanceNavigationTiming) {
    const ntEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0];
    return ntEntry.type;
  }
}

wasFetchedViaSpdy

function wasFetchedViaSpdy() {
  // SPDY is deprecated in favor of HTTP/2, but this implementation returns
  // true for HTTP/2 or HTTP2+QUIC/39 as well.
  if (window.PerformanceNavigationTiming) {
    const ntEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0];
    return ['h2', 'hq'].includes(ntEntry.nextHopProtocol);
  }
}

wasNpnNegotiated

function wasNpnNegotiated() {
  // NPN is deprecated in favor of ALPN, but this implementation returns true
  // for HTTP/2 or HTTP2+QUIC/39 requests negotiated via ALPN.
  if (window.PerformanceNavigationTiming) {
    const ntEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0];
    return ['h2', 'hq'].includes(ntEntry.nextHopProtocol);
  }
}

npnNegotiatedProtocol

function npnNegotiatedProtocol() {
  // NPN is deprecated in favor of ALPN, but this implementation returns the
  // HTTP/2 or HTTP2+QUIC/39 requests negotiated via ALPN.
  if (window.PerformanceNavigationTiming) {
    const ntEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0];
    return ['h2', 'hq'].includes(ntEntry.nextHopProtocol) ?
        ntEntry.nextHopProtocol : 'unknown';
  }
}

wasAlternateProtocolAvailable

function wasAlternateProtocolAvailable() {
  // The Alternate-Protocol header is deprecated in favor of Alt-Svc
  // (https://www.mnot.net/blog/2016/03/09/alt-svc), so technically this
  // should always return false.
  return false;
}

connectionInfo

function connectionInfo() {
  if (window.PerformanceNavigationTiming) {
    const ntEntry = performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0];
    return ntEntry.nextHopProtocol;
  }
}

Removal plan

The chrome.loadTimes() API will be deprecated in Chrome 64 and is targeted to be removed in late 2018. Developers should migrate their code as soon as possible to avoid any loss in data.

Intent to Deprecate | Chromestatus Tracker | Chromium Bug