Time To First Byte

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What Does Time To First Byte Mean?

Time to first byte (TTFB) is the total time taken by the remote server to send in the first byte of data after a user requests the data or page. TTFB is tech jargon mainly used for defining or measuring the responsiveness or speed of a website or remote Web server.

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Techopedia Explains Time To First Byte

TTFB is measured by adding the complete time it takes for the browser to receive the first byte of the requested page. This time starts when the user types in a website or server’s IP address and and asks the browser to go there. The clock stops on TTFB once the first byte of information comes back to the browser. A highly responsive server with an equivalent network will have a lower TTFB time; TTFB will be higher for a low-end server with limited bandwidth.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.