Why does it always seem like Chrome is using too much memory? The web has changed in recent years. Applications that would only run on desktop computers now run in the browser, but this comes at a cost. Modern browsers use a lot of RAM, and Chrome is among the worst offenders.

With just a little bit of effort, there's a lot you can do to limit Chrome's memory usage. If your browser seems to be always chugging along, this article will help you reduce Chrome's memory usage and free up RAM.

Find Out How Much RAM Chrome Is Using

There are two methods for figuring out how much RAM Chrome is using. You can find out Chrome's overall use in the Windows Task Manager.

Check Chrome memeory usage

If you want to drill down further and understand exactly how much RAM each site, extension, or plugin is using, you can opt instead for Chrome's own Task Manager. You can find the Chrome Task Manager by clicking the three dots in the top right of the browser, followed by More Tools > Task Manager.

How to Reduce Chrome Memory Usage

With the help of a few extensions and settings, you can also ensure that Chrome uses less memory without having to open up the task manager and kill sites.

1. Temporarily Close Tabs

Close Chrome tabs with TooManyTabs

With Chrome extension TooManyTabs, you can choose exactly which tabs to temporarily close. Use the extension to close the tabs and reopen them in the same place, so you can easily pick up where you left off. This is handy for limiting how much RAM Chrome uses while making it easier to stay focused with fewer tabs open.

After you install TooManyTabs, click on the extension button to pull up a list of all your open tabs. To suspend a tab, click the small yellow arrow next to the tab in question. To restore it, click on the yellow tab in the Suspended Tabs list, and it will be re-opened.

If you have two Chrome windows open, each with multiple tabs, clicking the TooManyTabs button will only give you access to the tabs in the window you are looking at. Alternatively, you can enable Chrome's native tab discarding, which will work on each open window.

Download: TooManyTabs (Free)

2. Suspend All Tabs

Suspend Chrome tabs

With The Great Suspender you can suspend all but one tab. Go to the tab you want to keep working on, click the Great Suspender button and select Suspend all other tabs. Note that the extension can be a little finicky, and you might have to click the button twice to get all tabs suspended.

The Great Suspender gives you quite extensive control over how tabs are suspended. You can whitelist specific sites, so if you always need your email inbox open in a browser, The Great Suspender is a good option. To reload a suspended tab, click anywhere in the window.

One Tab Chrome extension

If you want to suspend every single tab, OneTab is a better option. The extension collapses every single tab you have open without exceptions. It moves all the tabs into one list. You can then restore all tabs with one click, restore selective tabs, or close them all permanently.

Download: The Great Suspender (Free)

Download: OneTab (Free)

3. Let Chrome Choose for You

Tab mem free settings

If you'd rather leave the task up to Chrome, TabMemFree will automatically suspend inactive tabs. To customize its settings, right-click the TabMemFree icon and select Options. You can determine how long before it suspends inactive tabs, with a minimum of 15 minutes. You can also instruct it to ignore pinned tabs.

Tab Wrangler is another extension to consider that automatically suspends inactive tabs if you're looking for a little more control. Like TabMemFree, you can determine the length of time before a tab is considered inactive and set it to ignore pinned tabs, but you have the added option to lock additional tabs and to sync your tab settings between different computers.

Download: TabMemFree (Free)

Download: Tab Wrangler (Free)

4. Enable Hardware Acceleration

Another solution to stop Chrome from using too much memory is to enable the Hardware Acceleration feature. This way, Chrome reassigns graphics-intensive tasks, such as playing videos or games, from your CPU to your GPU.

Here’s how you can enable Chrome hardware acceleration:

  1. Navigate to chrome://settings.
  2. From the System section, enable the Use hardware acceleration when available option.
  3. Restart Chrome.
Enable Chrome's hardware acceleration

Sometimes, hardware acceleration can have a negative impact on Chrome. So, after enabling it, monitor your browser performance. If you constantly notice Chrome freezing or crashing, it’s better to turn off hardware acceleration and try a different solution from the list.

5. Text and Reading Extensions

Chrome reading extension

Certain websites can slow your computer down. Rather than let these sites get the best of your browser and computer, you can strip out a lot of the RAM-hogging content that slows you down.

Chrome extension Text Mode, as the name would indicate, loads all web pages in text only. It discards all images, videos, and flash elements. This also means that it will get rid of some ads and embedded content. To activate Text Mode on any site, click the icon's extension.

A gray box will appear anywhere an image once was. Text Mode also gets rid of any color on the screen, so it is quite easy on the eyes. If you continue to browse other sites in the same tab where Text Mode is activated, it will continue to strip images and extras out of those sites. The extension does not remove YouTube embeds.

If you prefer to continue to view images, but still want to strip out Flash and ads, you can opt for Read Mode. When you open up a page that you want to strip down to read mode, click its extension button in the top right.

Download: Text Mode (Free)

6. Control Background Apps

You may think that closing Chrome and switching to a different browser is enough to fix the high memory usage. However, Chrome has the ability to run apps in the background even if you’ve closed the browser. Here’s how to fix it:

  1. Open Chrome’s Settings menu.
  2. Head to the System section.
  3. Turn off the toggle next to Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed.
  4. Close Chrome, open Task Manager and check if you’re still dealing with Chrome’s high memory usage.
Chrome's background apps

7. Get Rid of Unwanted Extras

Some add-ons and extras available for Chrome can add to the memory usage. Take a look at your plugins and extensions, and get rid of anything that you deem unnecessary.

We may be recommending a few extensions that can help keep curbing Chrome's memory usage, but keep in mind that too many extensions can slow your computer down, hence cleaning up your Chrome extensions is a good idea.

Paste chrome://extensions in your address bar and go through your extensions and get rid of anything that you don't find yourself using regularly.

Manage Chrome extensions

An excellent way to see if you need these extensions is to disable them rather than remove them. A month later, go back to your extension list, and if you haven't felt the need to turn any of these extensions back on, you can go ahead and delete them through Chrome's extension manager.

8. Reset Chrome

If Chrome still takes a lot of your memory resources, you could try resetting the browser. This will remove your pinned tabs, browser cookies, and cache.

Follow the steps to reset Chrome to its default settings:

  1. Click the three-dot icon from the top-right corner and go to Settings.
  2. Go to Reset and clean up.
  3. Click Restore settings to their original defaults.
  4. Confirm the action.
Reset Chrome

When you reset your browser, Chrome will keep your bookmarks and saved password. But if decide to reinstall Chrome, you should export your bookmarks, so you don’t lose them.

Google Chrome Memory Usage, Limited and Reduced

As we’ve discussed there are plenty of methods to fix Chrome’s high memory usage. You can adjust your browser settings and install a few extensions to get Chrome to use less memory. If you’ve installed a lot of extensions and experimented with Chrome’s flags, it might be easier to reset your browser to its default settings, or even uninstall it, if you want a fresh start.

But if you've had enough of Chrome's high memory usage, you can switch to a browser that will not take as much of your system resources.