What you need to know
- Google Chrome has posted record scores of 61 in Speedometer 3.1 and 469 in JetStream 3.
- Google says the gains aren't just benchmark bragging rights, with users expected to see faster website loading and snappier web app performance.
- Performance jumped significantly this year, with Chrome improving 10% in JetStream and 5% in Speedometer compared to previous results.
Web browsers rarely make headlines for getting faster. New features, AI integrations, and visual redesigns tend to steal the spotlight. Google, however, is arguing that raw speed still matters, particularly when so much of our work, entertainment, and communication is now done inside a browser.
The company has announced a new significant performance milestone for Chrome, boasting record-breaking results in both Speedometer 3.1 and JetStream 3 benchmarks. Google said Chrome now has a Speedometer 3.1 score of 61 and a JetStream 3 score of 469, making it the fastest browser in both tests. Results were measured on a Macbook Pro with macOS 26.0.1 and the Apple M5 chip.
Benchmark numbers may sound abstract, but what it means is that websites and web apps should feel snappier. Google said these improvements translate into noticeable speed gains in day-to-day use. The company notes a 10% performance increase in JetStream since the start of the year and a 5% performance increase in Speedometer, versus its benchmark update about a year ago.
JavaScript got the most love
Much of the recent progress in Chrome has come from work done inside V8, Google’s JavaScript engine. Modern websites run a lot of JavaScript, so tiny optimizations can have a huge impact on the web.
Google said it focused on cutting the time for common operations by making Chrome skip processing steps it didn’t need. The company said some of the biggest wins came from optimizing asynchronous tasks like microtask dispatch and await resolution. Similar techniques also were used for string comparison and data sorting, helping Chrome handle everyday workloads more efficiently.
Engineers also refined the browser's decision-making process around code optimization. The Chrome team can now identify some JavaScript functions sooner and apply performance improvements earlier if it’s worth the effort. Google also improved BigInt handling, including division and data management, and introduced changes to the underlying memory allocation to strengthen sandbox security.
Furthermore, Chrome received another round of upgrades for WebAssembly performance. WebAssembly is becoming more and more relevant for challenging applications like AI workloads, cryptography tools, or complex web-based software.
Google said it has improved its internal data management, SIMD instruction generation, and register allocation. This leads to better performance for compute-intensive workloads. We also improved compiler times by using temporary memory more efficiently during the compilation process.
I like seeing these kinds of under-the-hood improvements, because they are the upgrades that most people actually benefit from, even if they never notice them directly. Still, I can't help but find it a little amusing to see browser makers now celebrating benchmark wins like they were Formula 1 trophies. Speedometer and JetStream scores are great for bragging rights, but most users are more interested in how fast and reliable they feel at their favorite sites. If we can get those real-world gains from Chrome’s latest optimizations, then the benchmark chest-thumping is easier to justify.
In addition, Chrome now reduces some of the overhead involved when JavaScript communicates with WebAssembly code, eliminating redundant conversions and memory loads in some workloads.
Chrome’s rendering engine, Blink, got a whole heap of tuning, too. This is the part of the browser that translates code into the pages and interfaces you see on screen.
Page loading got attention too. Google used SIMD processing to speed up string copying and HTML parsing, so Chrome can build page structures more efficiently the first time it loads. The company also improved Apple Advanced Typography processing to address typography and graphics bottlenecks, reducing font fallback overhead and adding caching to SVG rendering. DOM storage structures were also changed to reduce memory usage.
