Lighthouse Auditor

Run Google Lighthouse audits on any URL and get performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices scores with Core Web Vitals metrics.

What does Lighthouse Auditor do?

This Actor runs Google Lighthouse audits programmatically via Apify. It launches a real Chrome browser, navigates to your target URL, and returns detailed scores and metrics — the same data you'd get from Chrome DevTools, but automated and at scale.

Key capabilities:

• Performance scores (0-100) for each audit category
• Core Web Vitals — LCP, FCP, TBT, CLS, TTI, SI with good/needs-improvement/poor ratings
• Failing audits — top 10 worst-scoring audits so you know what to fix
• Optimization opportunities — potential time and byte savings, sorted by impact
• Mobile and desktop device emulation
• Configurable throttling — simulated, DevTools, or none
• Optional HTML reports saved to key-value store

Why use this Actor?

Use Case	How It Helps
SEO Monitoring	Track SEO scores across all your sites on a schedule
Performance Budgets	Alert when scores drop below your thresholds
Competitor Analysis	Compare your Core Web Vitals vs competitors
CI/CD Integration	Block deployments if Lighthouse scores fail
Client Reporting	Generate automated audit reports for clients
Bulk Auditing	Audit hundreds of URLs without manual work

How much does it cost to run?

This Actor uses approximately 0.1–0.3 compute units per audit, depending on:

• Page complexity (more resources = longer audit)
• Number of categories selected
• Whether HTML report is saved

At current Apify pricing, expect roughly $0.01–0.03 per audit.

Input

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	String	Yes	—	The URL to audit (https:// is added automatically if missing)
device	String	No	mobile	Device to emulate: mobile or desktop
categories	Array	No	All	Which categories to audit. Options: performance, accessibility, best-practices, seo
saveHtmlReport	Boolean	No	false	Save the full HTML Lighthouse report to key-value store
throttling	String	No	simulated	Network throttling preset: simulated (fast), devtools (accurate), or none (full speed)

Input example

{
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "device": "mobile",
    "categories": ["performance", "seo"],
    "saveHtmlReport": true,
    "throttling": "simulated"
}

Output

Results are saved to the default dataset with scores (0-100) and Core Web Vitals metrics.

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
url	String	The final URL after redirects
requestedUrl	String	The original URL requested
device	String	Device type used for the audit
timestamp	String	ISO timestamp of the audit
performance	Number	Performance score (0-100)
accessibility	Number	Accessibility score (0-100)
bestPractices	Number	Best Practices score (0-100)
seo	Number	SEO score (0-100)
coreWebVitals	Object	Core Web Vitals metrics with ratings (see below)
failingAudits	Array	Top 10 worst-scoring audits (score < 50), sorted worst first
opportunities	Array	Top 10 optimization opportunities, sorted by potential time savings
lighthouseVersion	String	Version of Lighthouse used
throttling	String	Throttling preset used
htmlReportKey	String	Key-value store key for HTML report (when saveHtmlReport is true)
htmlReportUrl	String	Direct URL to the HTML report (when saveHtmlReport is true)

Output example

{
    "url": "https://example.com/",
    "requestedUrl": "https://example.com",
    "device": "mobile",
    "timestamp": "2025-01-15T10:30:00.000Z",
    "performance": 85,
    "accessibility": 92,
    "bestPractices": 100,
    "seo": 90,
    "coreWebVitals": {
        "FCP": 1200,
        "FCP_rating": "good",
        "LCP": 2500,
        "LCP_rating": "good",
        "TBT": 150,
        "TBT_rating": "good",
        "CLS": 0.1,
        "CLS_rating": "good",
        "SI": 3200,
        "SI_rating": "good",
        "TTI": 3800,
        "TTI_rating": "good"
    },
    "failingAudits": [
        {
            "id": "render-blocking-resources",
            "title": "Eliminate render-blocking resources",
            "score": 0,
            "displayValue": "Potential savings of 1,230 ms",
            "description": "Resources are blocking the first paint of your page."
        }
    ],
    "opportunities": [
        {
            "id": "unused-javascript",
            "title": "Reduce unused JavaScript",
            "savingsMs": 1200,
            "savingsBytes": 245760,
            "displayValue": "Potential savings of 240 KiB"
        }
    ],
    "lighthouseVersion": "12.x.x",
    "throttling": "simulated"
}

Core Web Vitals reference

Core Web Vitals are Google's key metrics for page experience. Here's how to interpret the values:

Metric	Full Name	Good	Needs Work	Poor	Unit
LCP	Largest Contentful Paint	≤2500	≤4000	>4000	ms
FCP	First Contentful Paint	≤1800	≤3000	>3000	ms
TBT	Total Blocking Time	≤200	≤600	>600	ms
CLS	Cumulative Layout Shift	≤0.1	≤0.25	>0.25	score
SI	Speed Index	≤3400	≤5800	>5800	ms
TTI	Time to Interactive	≤3800	≤7300	>7300	ms

Throttling options explained

Option	Speed	Accuracy	Use Case
simulated	Fast	Good	Quick audits, bulk testing
devtools	Slow	Excellent	Accurate performance data
none	Fastest	Variable	When you only need scores, not timing

Recommendation: Use simulated for most cases. Use devtools when you need accurate Core Web Vitals for performance debugging.

Integrations

Schedule regular audits

Use Apify Scheduler to run audits daily, weekly, or hourly. Track scores over time by exporting to a database.

Send alerts

Connect to Zapier or Make to send Slack/email alerts when scores drop below thresholds.

CI/CD pipelines

Call this Actor from GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins to gate deployments on Lighthouse scores.

Example: GitHub Actions

- name: Run Lighthouse Audit
  run: |
    curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_ACTOR/runs?token=${{ secrets.APIFY_TOKEN }}" \
      -d '{"url": "${{ github.event.deployment.url }}", "device": "mobile"}'

Limitations

• One URL per run (for bulk audits, run multiple times or modify the Actor)
• Some sites may block headless Chrome — results may vary
• Maximum runtime: 5 minutes per audit

Changelog

• v2.1 — Added failing audits, optimization opportunities, CWV ratings, fixed HTML report as single dataset row
• v2.0 — Updated for Lighthouse 12, removed PWA category, improved stability
• v1.0 — Initial release with full Lighthouse 11 support

Support

Questions or issues? Contact the developer or open an issue on the Actor's page.

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Built by Jaclyn