Features are disclosed for determining preferred content request modes for client computing devices when initiating content requests. The request modes may correspond to direct requests (e.g., requests made from a client device directly to a content sever hosting requested content) or to indirect requests (e.g., requests made from the client device to the content server via an intermediary system). The preferred request modes made be based on a statistical analysis of performance data (e.g., prior content load times) obtained from one or more client computing devices for a given content item, group of content items (e.g., domain), and the like.