Why is Chrome taking up so much RAM?

[u/_CKDexterHaven_]

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[u/AWACSAWACS]

Shift+ESC

[u/BlackAle]

27 tabs / processes, 1.5GB of memory. I don't see the problem.

[u/_CKDexterHaven_ → u/BlackAle]

There are 6 tabs. That's why I included the image

[u/thewunderbar → u/_CKDexterHaven_]

The browser is more than just the tabs open.

[u/cat_dev_null_sync]

Browsers make design choices that use RAM for security and speed, but you can slow down the browser with options like Memory Saver to put your tabs to sleep.

Browser memory use is like system cache: usage speeds up the system, but when under memory pressure, both systems release memory for other uses.

The goal with RAM is not low usage. Unused RAM can be a wasted resource.

If I read your screenshot right, you system is not under memory pressure, so it's working correctly.

[u/spacelama → u/cat_dev_null_sync]

It's an often stated claim, but I've yet to see a browser actually release memory when competing workload starts up on a machine.

I usually end up doing the about:processes (firefox; or just killall Web\ Content Isolated\ Web\ Co WebExtensions) or shift:esc myself.

[u/cat_dev_null_sync → u/spacelama]

I did a quick test with Google Chrome 155 on macOS 26.6. tl;dr: it agreed with you

It's a mac mini with 8GB RAM, and I allocated 5GB in another process to cause memory pressure. I used active rewriting of the 5GB to avoid OS allowing it to go to swap. I saw OS swapped some Chrome memory usage, but Chrome didn't seem to free any.

Follow up tests I didn't try

• Check Chrome settings, like memory save
• Open lots of tabs in Chrome
• Use more than 5GB of RAM in the non-browser process.
• send fake notification to all apps with `memory_pressure -l critical`
• Firefox
• Windows

[u/Cultural_Surprise205]

That's not a lot. Any browser would use this much, give or take. Why are you worried, with only 28% of your total memory used? By the way, uBlock has a function to remove elements, so you could enable that to block ads and/or remove elements and ditch the element remover extension. And every extension will use memory, so enable only the necessary ones. Finally, memory usage is dependant on the individual sites you have open, not just the number of them. for instance I currently have two reddit tabs open - my main page and this one, and together they take up 400k. I notice your Chrome entry has 27 items listed, mine has only 14.

[u/_CKDexterHaven_ → u/Cultural_Surprise205]

I'm just surprised that Chrome uses as much RAM as a triple A gaming title. I'm not worried just shocked.

[u/coolmouse7777 → u/_CKDexterHaven_]

Modern AAA?

[u/_CKDexterHaven_ → u/coolmouse7777]

Yeah the new Halo remake was taking the same amount when I checked

[u/TheSpixxyQ]

Chrome isn't, it's mostly the tabs. Check Shift + ESC.

Also this isn't much.

[u/igmas]

I up to 9gigs I don't see a problem here.

[u/thewunderbar]

That's nothing.

[u/AppleFan1994]

Because that is what Chome does. It is a resource hog.

[u/_CKDexterHaven_ → u/AppleFan1994]

It literally uses the same amount of RAM as Halo remake

[u/Boe001]

Because Chrome 😅

[u/ImStillHereBuddy]

Because it’s a known memory whore. Plain and simple, it’s bloated and chunky.