# Requests per page before onload

**URL:** <https://discuss.httparchive.org/t/requests-per-page-before-onload/1376>\
**Category:** Analysis\
**Created:** [May 31, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://discuss.httparchive.org/t/requests-per-page-before-onload/1376 "2018-05-31T15:57:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rviscomi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discuss.httparchive.org/rviscomi/32/835_2.png) [@rviscomi](https://discuss.httparchive.org/u/rviscomi)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://discuss.httparchive.org/t/requests-per-page-before-onload/1376/1 "2018-05-31T15:57:07Z")

</div>

In [Update recommended min UA Resource Timing buffer size to 250 by nicjansma · Pull Request #155 · w3c/resource-timing · GitHub](https://github.com/w3c/resource-timing/pull/155) @igrigorik writes:

> FWIW, I think the “what is the distribution of same-frame resources prior to onload” question is worth investigating a bit further. I believe we should have all the right bits in HTTP Archive to extract this: we have detailed data on initiator / frame, and we can filter out any requests initiated after onload fires

I wanted to help answer this question and post it here on the discussion group so everyone else can see my approach and the results.

Here’s my [query](https://bigquery.cloud.google.com/savedquery/226352634162:a128e61400a0471f84ecfad627af0b7b):

```sql
#standardSQL
# Note: This query processes 287 GB.
CREATE TEMPORARY FUNCTION toInt(n STRING) AS (CAST(n AS INT64));

SELECT
  requests,
  COUNT(0) AS frequency
FROM (
  SELECT
    SUM(IF(toInt(JSON_EXTRACT(request.payload, '$._load_start')) < toInt(JSON_EXTRACT(page.payload, '$.pageTimings.onLoad')), 1, 0)) AS requests
  FROM
    `httparchive.pages.2018_05_01_desktop` AS page
  JOIN
    `httparchive.requests.2018_05_01_desktop` AS request
  ON
    page.url = request.page
  GROUP BY
    page.url)
GROUP BY
  requests
ORDER BY
  requests

```

See the results here

> **[HTTP Archive: Distribution of the number of requests before onload](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16x-4uO90MZYxa6WtuOjZag-_aVsrA-dln0jjmVeYcdM/edit?usp=sharing)**
>
> Results
> 
> requests,frequency,percent,cumulative...

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/uploads/httparchive/original/2X/c/cfb88a9c28ef258f57f396257db9902229cf70c3.png)

The tail is really long so this chart clips it at 500 requests. The maximum number of requests before onload is **3,432**!

There is a mode at 1 request and another around 50 requests. The median is 74 requests.

Out of curiosity I flipped the inequality and [queried](https://bigquery.cloud.google.com/savedquery/226352634162:a0f47a040c194fc9bf5bcf6aadace28c) for the median number of requests per page _on or after onload_. The result is **3 requests**. Either sites are doing a poor job of lazyloading or HTTP Archive is not well suited to trigger additional requests, for example scrolling down the page to initiate below-the-fold resource loading.