Your WordPress site might be loading Google Fonts without you even knowing it.
Many themes automatically pull these fonts from Google’s servers, which can slow down your website and raise privacy concerns for visitors in certain regions.
The good news is that disabling Google Fonts is easier than you might think, and it can actually improve your site’s performance.
Over the years of working with WordPress sites, we’ve found that removing these external font requests often speeds up loading times and gives you more control over your site’s appearance.
In this guide, we’ll show you 2 simple methods to disable Google Fonts on your WordPress website. This will help you switch to system fonts or simply improve your privacy and performance scores.
Why Disable Google Fonts on Your WordPress Website?
The main reason to disable Google Fonts is to improve your website speed and protect user privacy.
While custom typography looks nice, loading fonts from external servers creates extra requests. This slows down your page load times. Here are the key benefits of removing Google Fonts:
- Better Performance: Your site will load faster because the browser doesn’t need to download font files from Google.
- Improved Privacy: You stop sharing visitor IP addresses with Google, which helps with GDPR compliance.
- Better User Experience: System fonts load instantly. This prevents users with slow connections from waiting for text to appear.
When we redesigned the WPBeginner website, we decided to disable Google Fonts entirely. We switched to system fonts to make learning WordPress faster and more accessible for everyone, even on poor internet connections.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how to disable Google Fonts in WordPress.
Method 1: Disable Google Fonts in WordPress With a Plugin
First, you need to install and activate the Disable and Remove Google Fonts plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, the plugin will automatically disable all Google Fonts used by your theme and plugins. It doesn’t need to be configured.
Note: If you use a page builder like Elementor or Divi, you should check their settings first. These tools often have their own options to disable Google Fonts, which work better than installing an extra plugin.
Now WordPress will automatically use a default font in place of any Google Fonts that were being used. You should carefully check your website to make sure you are happy with the fonts that are now being used.
If you would like to choose different fonts, then see our guide on how to change fonts in your WordPress theme.
Some third-party tools load content independently from your WordPress theme. This means the plugin method above might not stop them from loading their own fonts.
A common example of this is lead generation software.
Method 2: Disable Google Fonts in OptinMonster
OptinMonster is the best lead-generation plugin for WordPress, and over 1.2 million websites use the software to grow their email list, increase sales, and get more leads.
We also use it at WPBeginner to create newsletter popups and have had an excellent experience. To learn more, you can see our OptinMonster review.
However, the tool uses Google Fonts by default. Luckily, it’s easy to disable them.
Disabling Google Fonts in Individual OptinMonster Campaigns
First, you should visit the OptinMonster website and log in to your Campaign Dashboard. After that, you need to click on a campaign and then click the ‘Edit Campaign’ button.
This will open the OptinMonster Campaign Builder.
Next, you need to click the ‘Settings’ icon in the bottom left corner of the footer bar.
In the sidebar panel, you need to select the ‘Advanced’ tab.
Now you can scroll down to the ‘Display Settings’ section and toggle ‘Enable web fonts?’ to the off position.
Once you click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen, third-party fonts will be disabled for that campaign.
You will need to repeat these steps for each other campaign you want to remove Google Fonts from.
Disabling Google Fonts For All OptinMonster Campaigns
If you are comfortable with adding JavaScript code snippets to your site, then you can disable Google Fonts on all OptinMonster campaigns at once.
To disable Google Fonts in every campaign, you need to add this snippet in your website’s header or footer:
<script type="text/javascript">
document.addEventListener('om.Scripts.init', function(event) {
event.detail.Scripts.enabled.fonts.googleFonts = false;
});
</script>
If you want to disable all web fonts, including Google Fonts and FontAwesome, then you should add this code snippet:
<script type="text/javascript">
document.addEventListener('om.Scripts.init', function(event) {
event.detail.Scripts.enabled.fonts = false;
});
</script>
The easiest way to add those code snippets is with WPCode, the most powerful code snippet plugin available for WordPress. It lets you easily add custom code to any area of your site, and best of all, it’s free.
First, you need to install and activate the WPCode free plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once activated, you need to go to Code Snippets » Headers & Footer.
Simply paste the code snippet in the Header field and then click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Frequently Asked Questions About Disabling Google Fonts in WordPress
Here are some questions that are frequently asked by our readers about disabling Google Fonts in WordPress:
Is disabling Google Fonts good for SEO or performance?
Disabling Google Fonts can slightly improve your site’s performance by reducing external requests, especially on slower connections or mobile devices. A faster website generally contributes to better SEO.
However, the impact is usually small unless your site uses many font variations. If you’re focused on speed optimization or GDPR compliance, disabling them makes sense.
Will disabling Google Fonts break my site’s design?
It might change how your text looks, especially if your theme relies heavily on custom fonts for its styling. But your site won’t break or crash. To maintain a clean design:
- Replace Google Fonts with web-safe system fonts like Arial, Georgia, or Helvetica
- Or, download and host the Google Fonts locally so you can still use the same typography without making requests to Google
This way, you retain your design while improving privacy and speed.
How can I tell if my WordPress theme is using Google Fonts?
To find out if your theme is loading Google Fonts, you can use tools like:
- Developer Tools in your browser (look for
fonts.googleapis.comin the Network tab) - GTmetrix, or PageSpeed Insights (check the list of external requests)
- WordPress plugins like Asset CleanUp or Query Monitor
If you spot a call to fonts.googleapis.com or fonts.gstatic.com, then your site is loading fonts from Google.
Expert Guides on Fonts in WordPress
We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to disable Google Fonts on your WordPress website. You may also want to see some other articles related to fonts in WordPress:
- How to Make Google Fonts Privacy Friendly
- How to Add Custom Fonts in WordPress
- How to Add Google Web Fonts in WordPress Themes the “Right” way
- How to Change Fonts in Your WordPress Theme
- How to Host Local Fonts in WordPress for a Faster Website
- How to Easily Change the Font Size in WordPress
- How to Change the Text Color in WordPress
- Best WordPress Typography Plugins to Improve Your Design
- How to add Awesome Typography in WordPress with Typekit
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Jiří Vaněk
Thank you for the great insight on how typography can affect website speed. At first, I was also frustrated that PageSpeed Insights showed me a lower speed partly due to loading Google assets (fonts, reCaptcha, etc.). Disabling them is one option that can help a lot. I eventually decided to upload Google Fonts to FTP and load them locally, which can also be an alternative. This helped me with speed while still allowing me to use Google fonts.