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How to Fix High Memory Usage by Google Chrome?

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Google Chrome is the king of the browsers but the main issue that it carries along with it is using too much memory. If you have researched a bit, you must be aware of the fact that Chrome uses a lot of resources on your computer. So, if you are worried about why chrome takes so much memory and how you can fix that, you are going to get all your answers here.

Why is Google Chrome Consuming So Much Memory?

Google Chrome is a browser that handles a lot of jobs; from watching YouTube videos, using web apps, extensions to opening different tabs, every single task is done by Google Chrome; so what do you think it is taking up resources from to do all that work? Obviously, the RAM of your computer is used by Google Chrome for all these matters. Do you know how much RAM chrome uses? Press SHIFT+ESC to open Google Chrome’s own Task Manager and see it yourself.

Press Shift+Esc to open Google Chrome’s Task Manager

Notes

Every tab and extension you open is split into a process by Chrome, so if one thing goes down, it will crash all your tabs.

So, now you know why Google Chrome uses so much memory; if you are using a lot of extensions and have opened a lot of tabs, this can make it use a lot of resources from your device in the form of RAM. Apart from that, there is a pre-rendering feature of Google Chrome that consumes a lot of memory, but that feature helps to load the page faster.

Thus, if Google Chrome is leading to high memory usage, it means you are letting it do so by opening a lot of tabs or using extensions. The app you use on your computer runs processes in your computer’s RAM that is temporary storage space for the data stored on your device. 

And whenever Chrome runs out of memory, you will see this message

“Aw, Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage; Error code: out of memory”

This ‘Aw, Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage; Error code: Out of Memory’ message will appear whenever Chrome runs of memory

Is it Harmful if Google Chrome Is Using too Much Memory?

This should be your main concern if it is wrong if Google Chrome is using too much memory. The purpose of having RAM installed on your device is it allows stored data to be received and read instantly. If the numbers in your Task Manager’s memory column scares you, remember that free RAM is useless, RAM is there in your system for a reason if you have a good amount of RAM on your device, it means your PC can store a lot of things in its short-term memory to recall them quickly later on.

So even if your RAM is full at times, it is a good thing that it is doing its job. But if you find that RAM is often full and is slowing down your device, that needs to be taken care of. If you need more memory than your computer has to offer is something that can make your device slower because it will shift the short-term memory to your computer’s hard drive and that is much slower.

How to Stop Google Chrome from High Memory Usage?

If Google Chrome is constantly using high memory usage, it is important to know how to reduce high memory usage in Google Chrome. To make Chrome use less memory, you can try several things like managing plugins and extensions, activate hardware acceleration, and so on; all these methods have been explained further here:

1. Close the RAM-Eating Programs

There are programs that use more RAM than others and to which one is causing high memory usage, you can open Task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+DELETE or open Google Chrome’s own Task Manager by pressing SHIFT+ESC, and there you can see what tab or extension is consuming maximum RAM. You can even sort the memory consumption from highest to lowest in the ‘Memory’ column. After that, you can select the processes that are consuming a lot of RAM or aren’t currently in use and click on ‘End Task’ to remove them. 

Find the tab or extension consuming maximum RAM and click on ‘End Task’ to remove them

2. Use Chrome Tab Management Extension

Using Chrome Tab Management Extension is another way to put a cap on RAM usage and save some memory. You must be wondering why to install one more extension when there are already many affecting your RAM usage. But these extensions work to fix your problem and help in customizing Chrome. One such useful extension is The Great Suspender that lets you remove all the processes that are consuming too much memory, ultimately reducing the memory used by Chrome. OneTab is another useful tab management extension that lets you close all the tabs in one go by clicking on the OneTab button; it will provide all the links in one tab so that you can open them at your convenience.

3. Manage Extensions

You must also know how to manage extensions so that you can disable the ones that are using a lot of power but aren’t currently in use. Here is how to reduce high memory usage in Google Chrome by managing extensions:

  • Right-click on the extension that you want to disable and then click on ‘Manage extensions’ 
Right-click on the extension and click on ‘Manage Extensions
  • In the ‘Site access’ section, select one out of the two options ‘On click’ or ‘On specific sites’ for ‘Allow this extension to read and change all your data on websites your visit’
In the ‘Site access’ section, select ‘On Click’ or ‘On Specific Sites’ for ‘Allow this extension to read and change all your data on websites your visit’
  • You can also use an extension manager like SimpleExt to manage all your extensions if you are using a lot of them.

4. Enable Hardware Acceleration

You can also enable hardware acceleration to reduce high memory usage by Google Chrome. Here is how to do that:

  • After opening Google Chrome, click on the three dots button in the top-right corner; then, click on ‘Settings’.
  • On the ‘Settings’ page, click on the ‘Advanced’ option.
  • Then move to the ‘System’ section and turn on the toggle for ‘Use hardware acceleration when available’.
  • After that, restart Google Chrome and in the address bar, type chrome://gpu/; hit Enter; now, check if Hardware Acceleration or GPU Rendering is enabled or not.

5. Check your Device for Malware

You can also face high memory usage by Chrome when your device has been affected by malware or adware and to fix this, run an antivirus scan. If your device is infected by any virus, the antivirus toll will remove it, and ultimately, this will help in reducing memory usage by Chrome.

6. Set Up a New User Profile

You can also fix this issue by creating a new user profile for Google Chrome as doing this may prevent Chrome from using too much memory; to do this:

  • Go to the Task Manager and end all the Google Chrome processes
  • Navigate to C:Users<username>AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataDefault in Explorer.
  • Press CTRL+A to select all the files and press Shift + Delete to erase all the files permanently.
  • After that, restart Google Chrome and then create a new user profile 

Hopefully, all these solutions will fix the high memory usage by Google Chrome.

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