First-time contributors wait 10.9x longer for review. The onboarding bottleneck is worse than you think.
Wait Multiplier
for first-time contributors
Based on 117,413 reviewed PRs | GitHub Archive / BigQuery | October 2025
In repositories that actually do code review, first-time contributors wait a median of 15.2 hours for their PRs to get attention. Repeat contributors? Just 1.4 hours. That's a 10.9x difference.
First-time Contributors
15.2h
median wait time
Repeat Contributors
1.4h
median wait time
| Contributor Type | PRs Analyzed | Median Wait | P90 Wait |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-time contributor | 38,993 | 15.2h | 295.4h (12.3 days) |
| Repeat contributor | 78,420 | 1.4h | 94.4h (3.9 days) |
"First-time contributors wait 10.9x longer for review—that's 15.2 hours vs 1.4 hours."
The 10x penalty isn't random—it reflects how review queues naturally prioritize familiar names. Understanding the dynamics helps explain why fixing this requires intentional effort.
Maintainers naturally prioritize PRs from known contributors. Unknown names get pushed to the bottom of the mental queue, even without conscious bias.
Repeat contributors have established trust. Maintainers know their code quality and communication style. First-timers require more careful scrutiny, making reviews feel "heavier."
Reviewing a first-timer's PR often means explaining project conventions, which takes more time than rubber-stamping a trusted contributor's routine change.
Most projects don't have dedicated first-timer queues or reviewers. New PRs compete in the same pool as established contributors—and lose.
The biggest factor in contributor retention is the first experience. A 15-hour wait signals "we're not that interested."
Contributors with less time to invest—caregivers, multiple job holders, different time zones—are disproportionately affected.
Fewer new contributors becoming regulars means more work falls on existing maintainers, accelerating burnout.
"The P90 wait for new contributors is 12.3 days. Would you stick around?"
Projects that prioritize contributor growth have found practical ways to reduce the first-timer penalty. These aren't theoretical—they're battle-tested practices from successful open source projects.
Use GitHub labels like "first-time-contributor" and set up notifications or filters specifically for these PRs. Make them impossible to ignore.
Set explicit targets: "All first-time PRs get a response within 24 hours." Even a simple "Thanks, we'll review this!" dramatically improves retention.
Assign experienced contributors to shepherd first-time PRs. This spreads the load and creates the relationships that convert one-time contributors into regulars.
Deploy bots that instantly thank first-time contributors, explain the review process, and set expectations. Immediate acknowledgment prevents the "is anyone listening?" anxiety.
You can't improve what you don't measure. Add first-timer response time to your project's health dashboard and review it monthly.
A 10x penalty isn't a bug—it's a design choice. And it's the wrong one.
The first-contribution experience sets the tone for everything that follows. A 15-hour wait tells new contributors they're not valued. If your project wants sustainable growth and contributor diversity, you need to treat first-time PRs differently—not as low priority work, but as your highest-leverage investment.
The fix is simple: Label first-time PRs, set response SLAs, and track the metric. The small effort pays dividends in contributor retention and project sustainability.
The 10.9x penalty is specific to reviewed PRs—repositories that actually practice code review. When we look at all GitHub PRs (including instant self-merges), the penalty appears smaller because most PRs skip review entirely.
22h vs 16h
15.2h vs 1.4h
The improvement in global stats (53% to 38%) is encouraging, but the 10.9x penalty in reviewed repos shows the onboarding problem is concentrated where it matters most: in teams doing actual code review.
This analysis is based on 117,413 pull requests that received at least one code review event, sourced from GitHub Archive / BigQuery during October 2025. A "first-time contributor" is defined as someone with no prior merged PRs to that repository. Wait time is measured from PR creation to first review event. The 10.9x multiplier is calculated from median wait times (15.2h / 1.4h). For full methodology, see the complete study.
CodePulse shows you exactly how long different contributor types wait for review in your repos.