Prototyping with Variables Painfully Slow

Thanks for flagging. Could you please submit a case to the support team so they can investigate more?

Thanks,
Toku

Just a note, I am seeing exactly this same issue. I have a number of variables inside components, and it really slows down all parts of the whole prototype. Experimenting, I have seen that it is a bit better if I run the prototype inside a web browser than in Figma’s app. In iOS I have seen Safari seems to run it faster than chrome, and on my PC Edge runs it faster than chrome. But even in the browser it is clearly running slower than it should.

Really hoping there is a fix for this soon - I love variables and everything you can do with them, but not being able to have them inside components really will limit their usefulness…

This is also an issue for us. We’ve been encountering this for weeks. It makes conveying ideas to a global team of PMs, Stakeholders, and clients incredibly painful. Prototyping is basically unusable for us. Our team has submitted multiple tickets with no clear resolution.

For whatever reason, it feels faster now on my Laptop. Any use of variables on state only cause minor lags, it used to be seconds after every interaction.
On my android phone it feels decently fast, but on iPad nothing changed.

We have seen a huge improvement since the latest release on performance for prototypes using lots of variables, great work team Figma!

I’m still experiencing the issue. I’m on the latest version of Figma and it doesn’t look like my memory usage is too high (but I admit it’s not a simple prototype)

Hi there,

Do you know if this issue occurs only in your environment or if it’s happening for others as well? If it’s only happening with your file, could you try the following troubleshooting steps?

• Close any Figma tabs you’re not using.
• Browser: Force-quit and open Figma in a new browser window.
• Desktop App: Force-quit the Figma Desktop app and restart it. If the issue persists, try clearing the cache.

If the issue occurs for others too, could you reach out directly to the support team with a copy of your file: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?

Thanks,
Toku

Hi there,

I’m the only one working on the file, so I can’t test if it’s happening to anyone else. I can try sharing the file – it’s pretty complex, but switching variables is very slow even when I simplify it.

An approach to no code using classic VMC. Id imagine this feature being forgotten in AI, and relinquished to dev-mode meta data. almost had it doing Procedures

My colleague and I are both having this problem with our respective prototypes even though we are using different design systems. Interactions are snappy enough when clicking from frame to frame, but whenever variables and variant changes are used, the performance is horrific. Like 5 seconds to update the screen.