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requestIdleCallback delays under load, contrary to common assumption

By PulseAugur Editorial · [1 sources] ·

A developer conducted an experiment using Playwright in headless Chromium to compare the performance of `requestIdleCallback` and `setTimeout(0)` for scheduling background tasks. Contrary to common assumptions, the tests revealed that `requestIdleCallback` experienced significant delays (13.6-28.8ms) under simulated heavy page load, while `setTimeout(0)` consistently remained under 0.3ms. This indicates that `setTimeout(0)` is more reliable for immediate execution when the page is busy, whereas `requestIdleCallback` is designed for true idle periods and can be delayed when the browser is actively rendering. AI

RANK_REASON Developer blog post analyzing performance characteristics of web APIs.

Read on dev.to — Claude Code tag →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

requestIdleCallback delays under load, contrary to common assumption

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Developer blog post analyzing performance characteristics of web APIs.
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  1. dev.to — Claude Code tag TIER_1 English(EN) · RAXXO Studios ·

    requestIdleCallback vs setTimeout: The Delay I Actually Measured

    <ul> <li><p>On an idle page, requestIdleCallback and setTimeout(0) both fired in under 6ms across every run</p></li> <li><p>Under a simulated 8ms-per-frame render load, requestIdleCallback delay jumped to 13.6-28.8ms</p></li> <li><p>setTimeout(0) stayed under 0.3ms delay in the s…

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