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Optimization Detective
Provides a framework for leveraging real user metrics to detect optimizations for improving page performance.
The facts
- Rating
- 4.3★ from 3
- Active installs
- 60k+
- Price
- Free
- Last updated
- 26 Aug 2026
- Added
- Mar 2024
- Requires WP
- 6.9
- Tested up to
- WP 7.1
- Requires PHP
- 7.4
- Downloads
- 475,316
Our analysis
AI-assistedOptimization Detective is a WordPress plugin designed to capture real user metrics regarding page elements displayed across different devices. It aims to apply loading optimizations that are not achievable with standard server-side heuristics in WordPress. However, it does not offer optimization features on its own and requires additional plugins for that functionality.
This plugin operates without any configuration or user interface and requires the REST API to be accessible for collecting metrics. Currently, it does not collect metrics from Safari due to limitations with the browser's support for certain performance metrics.
Best for: This plugin is suitable for developers looking to enhance site performance through user metrics and additional optimization plugins.
What it does well
- ✓Captures real user metrics for page elements
- ✓Works across various device form factors
- ✓No configuration or user interface needed
- ✓Part of a framework that supports additional optimization plugins
- ✓Free to use from the WordPress.org directory
Where it falls short
- •Does not provide optimization functionality on its own
- •Requires additional plugins for full functionality
- •No metrics collected from Safari currently
- •Limited information on settings and configuration options
Verdict
Optimization Detective offers a way to gather user metrics for performance improvements but relies on other plugins for actual optimization. It may be beneficial for those who want to delve deeper into site performance.
From the developer
WordPress Performance Team's own description of Optimization Detective, lightly tidied.
This plugin captures real user metrics about what elements are displayed on the page across a variety of device form factors (e.g. desktop, tablet, and phone) in order to apply loading optimizations which are not possible with WordPress’s current server-side heuristics.
This plugin is a framework dependency which does not provide optimization functionality on its own. For that, please install the Image Prioritizer and Embed Optimizer dependent plugins (among others to come from the WordPress Core Performance team). There are currently no settings and no user interface for this plugin since it is designed to work without any configuration.
Your site must currently have the REST API accessible to unauthenticated frontend visitors since this is how real user metrics are collected about pages on your site; nevertheless, exploration is underway for providing alternative mechanisms for collecting the metrics. Also, please note that no metrics are currently collected from Safari since it does not yet support the Largest Contentful Paint metric, but support for this Core Web Vitals metric is coming this year via Interop 2025.
Please refer to the full plugin documentation for a technical introduction, filter/action hooks, and extensions that show use cases and examples. You can also watch the talk from WordCamp Asia 2025: Boosting Performance with Optimization Detective.
Tagged as
purpose
Performance & Speed
topic
Framework
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