How to fix high memory usage issue on Microsoft Edge

Are you getting the " High Memory Usage Detected " warning when browsing on Microsoft Edge ? It means that some browser processes are using too much memory (RAM).

Luckily, you can easily identify and close those resource-hungry processes, as well as customize some of your browser's features to reduce memory usage.

1. Preliminary check

Start troubleshooting Microsoft Edge by applying the following checks and fixes:

• Close tabs you are not using.
• Pause active downloads temporarily.
• Make sure your browser is up to date.

If the above preliminary checks do not resolve the issue and you encounter the warning again, apply the remaining fixes.

2. Close resource-intensive processes

Next, close resource-hungry processes to free up memory resources. Microsoft Edge's built-in task manager makes this very simple.

1. Click on the three horizontal dots in the upper right corner.

2. Navigate to More tools > Browser task manager .

3. Click the Memory column header to sort tasks based on memory usage in descending order.

4. Close resource-intensive but unnecessary tasks. To end a process, select the task and click the End process button .

Make sure you don't kill essential browser processes (like GPU processes or the browser process itself) and save changes before closing any tabs.

3. Enable Edge Efficiency Mode

Edge Efficiency Mode is designed to minimize power consumption and does this by reducing resource usage. When enabled, Efficiency Mode puts inactive tabs to sleep and optimizes other tab activities to keep memory usage to a minimum, reducing memory usage.

1. Click on the three horizontal dots in the upper right corner and open Settings .
2. Go to the System and Performance tab on the left.
3. Under Optimize Performance , turn on the toggle next to Efficiency Mode and select Maximum Savings . Also, make sure the toggles next to Save resources with sleeping tabs and Fade sleeping tabs are turned on .

4. Disable hardware acceleration and boot acceleration

Hardware acceleration offloads some processing tasks from your CPU and uses your dedicated hardware, such as your GPU , to handle them, improving browser performance. Similarly, startup acceleration preloads some necessary browser processes to launch your browser faster.

These features speed up your browser but come at the cost of using a little more memory, so you can free up your system resources by disabling them.

1. Click on the three horizontal dots in the upper right corner.
2. Navigate to the System and performance tab on the left.
3. In System settings , turn off the toggles next to Startup boost and Use hardware acceleration when available .

5. Check for malware on your browser

Browser malware is often programmed to mine cryptocurrency or support other computing needs of cybercriminals. When your device is infected with malware, memory usage will increase significantly as the malware uses your system resources.

To make sure your browser isn't being hijacked, close all tabs after saving your progress and restart your browser. Then, leave your browser idle for a few seconds. Then, open a resource monitoring app, such as Windows Task Manager or macOS Activity Monitor, and determine how much memory your browser is consuming while idle.

If memory consumption is high, even when no processes are running, your browser may be hacked or infected with a virus. Therefore, scan your browser with a security extension or anti-malware application and remove the intruder.

6. Disable browser extensions

Disable all browser extensions and see if that fixes the problem. If so, then one (or more) of your browser extensions is using too much memory. To figure out which browser extension is causing the problem, enable all of them and then disable them one by one. While you’re at it, look at the memory usage in your browser’s task manager.

If disabling a particular extension suddenly reduces memory usage, that's the culprit. So disable that extension or delete it permanently.

7. Apply browser-specific fixes

If the error persists after trying the above fixes, you may want to clear your browser cache to remove any outdated records. If that doesn’t work, try resetting your browser to make sure misconfigured settings aren’t the cause. If that doesn’t work, reinstall your browser from scratch – but hopefully it won’t come to that!