Quick Tips: How to Fix “Requests from referrer https://www.googleapis.com/ are blocked” error in Page Speed Insights

Are you trying to see how well your site (or someone else's!) performs using Page Speed Insights, but it keeps hanging at 50% complete and then throwing an error saying:

“Requests from referrer https://www.googleapis.com/ are blocked”

The easy fix

This is nearly always because either your anti-virus or firewall is blocking the request.

This is especially likely in Brave browser when using "Shields Up".

If you are using Brave browser, add an exception or temporarily switch "Shields" off.

To check if it is a firewall / Brave browser interfering with your connection do the following:

1. Fire up Chrome or Firefox
2. Go Incognito / disable extensions
3. Disconnect from your Wi-Fi / wired connection
4. Switch on the mobile hotspot on your phone (and ensure it is on data only)

Try running the test again.

If the problem disappears then reverse the process one step at a time and keep trying until you encounter the same problem. This then lets you pinpoint what is actually blocking the request.

If the problem does not disappear after doing that, then open the network tab, look for the request to "googleapis.com" and look to see if you have accidentally blocked the domain (and unblock it by right clicking on the entry and clicking "unblock googleapis.com"!).

That is it, for 99% of people that will fix the problem (and most of the time it is simply Brave browser shields that is interfering).

And if all else fails, you can just use "Lighthouse" in developer tools, the recommendations and score should be pretty similar as Page Speed Insights uses Lighthouse to power it anyway (you just won't get your origin and page summaries as part of the report).

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