I love Figma — it’s been my go-to canvas for everything from landing-page experiments to interactive prototypes and visual systems. But like any creative tool, it can choke when a file grows unwieldy. If your Figma files feel slow — laggy panning, sluggish selection, long load times — you’re not alone. I’ve wrestled with bloated files and learned practical, repeatable fixes that restore speed without sacrificing design quality. Below I share how I diagnose the common causes of slowness and the concrete steps I use to speed things up.

How to recognize a slow Figma file

Before optimizing, it helps to know you’re facing a performance problem and not just a momentary hiccup.

  • Long load time when opening a file (especially team files).
  • Laggy panning/zooming or delayed selection of layers and components.
  • Slow prototype interactions and transitions, or choppy playback in presentation mode.
  • High CPU or memory usage in the desktop app while the file is open.

    • When I see these signs, I stop designing and start profiling: a few minutes of triage saves hours of frustration later.

    Common causes of slowness

    Understanding the root cause will help you pick the right fix. Here are the usual suspects I encounter:

  • Large or numerous bitmap images — full‑resolution JPGs/PNGs embedded across pages.
  • Complex vector shapes — hundreds of boolean operations, masks, or nested paths.
  • Massive component libraries or many instances — especially components with lots of nested layers and effects.
  • Excessive use of effects — heavy drop shadows, blurs, and multiple fills on many layers.
  • Too many pages or frames — giant files used as a single source of truth for multiple projects.
  • Plugins and widgets — some can run expensive scripts or leave artifacts in the document.
  • Fonts — dozens of font families and weights can slow rendering and load times.
  • Prototyping overload — many interactive nodes, overlays, or complex transition chains.

    • Quick diagnostics I run first

    I open the file in the desktop app (it’s generally faster than the browser), then:

  • Check the File > Show File Info or look at the file size in the team library. Big file size = clue one.
  • Open the Performance panel (Help > Open Performance) to see canvas fps and memory usage. This tells me whether vectors, images, or interactions spike CPU/memory.
  • Disable plugins and remove widgets temporarily to test whether they’re the culprit.
  • Try duplicating the file and hiding pages incrementally to see if performance improves. That helps locate a problematic page or frame.

    • Practical fixes that actually work

    Here’s my checklist. I follow it in order, but pick items that match your diagnostics.

  • Optimize images first

    • Huge raster images are the most common cause. Replace full‑res photos with optimized versions sized to the maximum display size in your design. I use TinyImage Compressor or ImageOptim before importing. In Figma you can also right-click an image and choose Export as PNG/JPG to control resolution, but better to compress before upload.

  • Use vector simplification

    • Complex SVGs (hundreds of nodes) are expensive. Open SVGs in an editor (Illustrator, Sketch, or an online SVGO tool) and simplify paths or reduce point counts. Many icon sets allow you to download simplified versions. For decorative artwork, consider flattening to a raster with appropriate resolution.

  • Flatten heavy layers selectively

    • Some groups with blending modes, masks, and effects render slowly. If a layer is static, flatten it to a bitmap (right-click > Flatten). You lose scalability, so only flatten decorative or non-responsive parts.

  • Simplify components and variants

    • Complex components with many nested layers or variants can bloat a file. Audit your component library: are there redundant layers, unused variants, or deeply nested frames? Merge similar variants, remove unused states, and consider splitting very large component sets into smaller teams or files.

  • Reduce effects and masks

    • Drop shadows, blurs, and multiple fills add GPU cost. Limit shadows to essential elements, use simpler shadow styles, and avoid dozens of small blurred layers. Similarly, mask only when necessary and prefer clipping for simpler cases.

  • Prune unused assets

    • Open the Assets panel, and remove unused images, styles, and components. Plugins like Clean Document or Figma’s Remove unused styles script help. Less clutter means faster indexing and smaller file sizes.

  • Split huge files

    • Monolithic files are a common anti-pattern. If you have a file that contains dozens of unrelated projects or dozens of pages for every minor version, split it into focused files: one per product, one for the component library, one for archive/old screens. Use Team Libraries to share components across files. I prefer a “design system” file + multiple “product” files — that structure reduced my team’s load times noticeably.

  • Use libraries and branching

    • Publish component libraries (Team Libraries) rather than duplicating components in many files. When you need experimentation, use Branches instead of keeping every alternative inside one massive file.

  • Limit fonts

    • Reduce the number of font families and weights used in a file. Use variable fonts when appropriate — they replace multiple weights with a single file and can cut load time. Also, disable Google Fonts in the desktop app if they’re causing slow network fetches during open.

  • Tighten prototype complexity

    • Complex prototypes with hundreds of triggers and overlays can bog down interaction playback. Simplify flows, collapse off-screen nodes, or create separate prototype files that focus on the flow you want to test.

  • Avoid excessive pages and frames

    • Keep pages focused. Archive old screens into a separate file rather than keeping them in the working file. This reduces the working document size and speeds up file operations like search.

  • Be mindful with plugins

    • Some plugins insert invisible layers, hidden metadata, or large assets. Audit plugin outputs and remove leftover artifacts. If a specific plugin makes the file slow, avoid using it on production files or clean its traces afterward.

    When to use flattening vs keeping vectors

    Here’s a quick decision guide I use:

    Need scalability or frequent editsKeep vectors
    Static decorative element, causing slowdownFlatten to bitmap at appropriate resolution
    Icons or UI elements reused across filesUse components with simplified vectors or SVG-optimized assets

    Tools and plugins I rely on

    My toolkit includes:

  • TinyImage Compressor (compress and resize images before importing)
  • SVGO or SVGOMG (optimize SVGs)
  • Clean Document (remove hidden layers, unused styles)
  • Figma’s Performance panel (diagnostics)
  • Desktop app (faster rendering than browser in many cases)

    • Team habits that keep files healthy

    Optimizing is partly technical and partly cultural. I encourage teams to adopt these practices:

  • Keep files focused and split by feature or product.
  • Publish and use shared libraries; avoid duplicating components.
  • Set conventions for image sizes and compression (e.g., max 2x for most screens).
  • Run periodic “file cleanups” — remove unused assets and archive old pages.
  • Document prototyping practices so long interactive chains are limited to dedicated prototype files.

    • Speeding up Figma files is rarely about a single magic fix. It’s a combination of responsible asset management, simplifying complex layers and components, and using the right tools to compress and optimize. When I follow this checklist, files feel snappier, collaboration is smoother, and I spend less time waiting and more time designing.