Chrome is constantly eating up at least 2GB of my computer's memory, and that's when I'm not doing anything particularly demanding.Add How-To Geek on Google Add as Preferred Source Follow on Google Discover This isn't a new story, as Chrome has a reputation for excessive RAM usage.One reason is its multi-process model, which creates separate processes for all browser tasks, extensions, and tabs.
Google has admitted this approach is demanding on resources since 2008, when Chrome first launched.It is, however, supposed to be better for privacy and security.The good news is that the way Chrome handles these processes and other taxing features can be changed, at least to some degree.
So if you like the seamless integration of web apps and aren't ready to give up on Chrome yet, take a closer look at some of its settings.There are a few tweaks you can make to reduce the amount of memory it uses.Memory Saver is off Free up RAM by snoozing unused apps Close If you keep multiple tabs open, Memory Saver can prevent them from overloading memory.
This option will deactivate idle tabs that you have not accessed in a while and automatically reload them as needed.When Chrome first released this feature, the announcement stated it can save up to 40% and 10 GB in memory, You will only get such a dramatic improvement if your tabs are particularly memory intensive.YouTube or complex browser apps will use more RAM compared to a few basic tables in Google Sheets.
To enable Memory Saver: Open Chrome, click the ellipsis icon in the upper-right corner, and select Settings.Select the Performance section in the sidebar.Find the Memory Saver section and toggle the feature on.
Choose between Moderate, Balanced, and Maximum to decide how quickly you want your tabs to become inactive.I recommend you pick Balanced or Medium.Maximum might deactivate tabs too quickly and become inconvenient if it starts reloading videos or losing scroll positions.
If you work inside web apps containing unsaved work, consider adding those as exceptions if you activate Memory Saver.In the same Performance section, find the Always keep these sites open option.This will prevent Memory Saver from refreshing pages with unsaved progress.
Extended preload pages Don't trade resources for barely noticeable speed Extended Preload pages are supposed to make browsing faster by anticipating the address you want to visit based on previous activity.It can save you some seconds, but it uses extra memory in the process.You can either disable Preload pages altogether or switch from Extended preloading to Standard preloading: Open your browser and go to chrome://settings/performance.
Scroll down to the Speed section and locate the Preload pages option.Toggle it off to disable it or switch to Standard preloading.This is one of those Chrome features you're better off disabling because the speed improvement isn't worth it for the trade-off.
On-device AI Features Unused AI features can use valuable resources Chrome attracted some negative reactions earlier this year when it quietly installed a 4GB file on PCs.These are on-device AI features such as AI-powered Scam Detection, the AI Mode search option in the browser's search bar, and an AI mode sidebar.Now, note that these features don't use 4GB worth of RAM, but disk storage.
They still consume some memory, though, and if you don't use them, disable them to save resources: Go to chrome://settings/ai > Switch off the toggle for "On device AI".Related How to Allocate More RAM to Apps or Games in Windows 11 Improve your app or game's performance.Posts By Mahesh Makvana Lingering background processes Some processes keep running even after you close Chrome Chrome has an option to "Continue running background apps" even after you close the browser.
It allows some apps, such as Google Workspace Suite, to send you notifications even when the browser is closed.If you have ever closed the browser and still saw multiple Chrome processes in your Task Manager, this is likely the culprit.These processes can use even 30% of the computer's memory.
If you don't rely on notifications from Chrome, you don't lose anything by disabling it: Open Chrome and type chrome://settings/system.Locate the Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed option.Toggle it off to disable.
Continue where you left off You don't need all your old tabs at startup If you have a regular lineup of sites that you use routinely, the option to restore pages on startup is convenient.You don't have to reopen them separately each session.But if you often close your browser with dozens of tabs open, restoring them all can cause a spike in RAM use.
Here's how to disable it: Type chrome://settings/onStartup in the address bar.Select Open a specific Page or Open the New Tab page.There are lighter ways to access your most frequented sites without restoring your entire browsing session, such as shortcuts and bookmarks.
Alternatively, you can create your custom set of pages that you want to open each session.How to check Chrome RAM usage Quick check to find the biggest memory drains The settings and features I discussed above are known culprits that use up too much memory, but if you suspect there's a problem that goes beyond that, you can check exactly which tab, process or extension in Chrome is using too much RAM.Open Google Chrome on your computer.
Click on the ellipsis icon in the upper-right corner.Select More tools.Pick Task Manager.
Check the Memory footprint section to see which particular tasks hog RAM.This will help you figure out if there's a specific extension or feature that you have to disable for even better performance.Keep Chrome, ditch the bloat Even though Chrome isn't the most resource-friendly browser by design, tweaking some settings can have a real impact on its resource use.
It seamlessly integrates Google Workspace, which makes it hard to replace for people who use the suite.It also keeps adding useful features like the ability to annotate PDFs and create split views, which maintain its spot as an essential tool for many.And if you're on a mission to optimize your whole setup, consider tweaking your Windows memory settings as well.
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