While Microsoft Edge uses the same Chromium Engine as the Chrome browser, the CPU and RAM usage is drastically less. That said, it is still possible that the Edge browser may start consuming more resources, and that’s where the guide will come in handy. This post offers suggestions that will help you in situations where Microsoft Edge gets into a high memory usage situation.
Microsoft Edge High Memory Usage
Assuming you see the computer or browsing getting slow while using the Edge browser, it’s a good idea first to investigate.
Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), and sort it by memory usage.
- If it is something other than Edge consuming process and memory, you need to check on that application.
- If it is the Edge browser, let’s take a look into more details.
Use Edge Browser Task Manager to check Tab Memory Usage
Did you know the browser also offers a built-in task manager? It helps you know how much memory each open tab is consuming. That’s important because a particular website may be taking many resources, which could slow the experience.
When on Edge browser, press Shift+Esc, to bring up the browser’s task manager. It will reveal all the tasks, including the Browser, GPU process, Network Service, Audio, video services, and memory usage of each tab and the extensions.
That said, the Microsoft Edge Team has its own recommendation on how much memory each of these processes inside the Browser can take. Here is the list of the maximum each of these processes should take:
- Browser process: 400 MB. This can be pushed up as you open more tabs.
- Renderer process: 500 MB. Playing video, social news feeds, and more.
- Subframe process: 75 MB. This can extend if there are complex ads, especially those playing videos.
- GPU Process: 1.75GB
- Utility process: 30 MB
- Extension process and plug-in processes: 15-0 MB
Windows reserves an amount of memory that can come in handy when it’s needed. It is also called as Commit charge and is based on the amount of Page Size. When Edge launches, it asks for committed memory space, and Windows offers it through Page Size or Virtual Memory. This is all dynamic, so even if a program asks for 3 GB and utilizes only 500 MB, the rest is still free.
Factors that impact Edge memory usage
Microsoft Edge does not take up so much memory always. The amount of RAM used by Edge and any other web browser depends on a number of factors. These factors are the number of tabs, advertisements, web browser extensions, content, screen resolution, window size, the number of browser windows opened, etc.
How to reduce the memory usage in Edge?
If you see any open tab or extensions taking a lot of memory compared to others, close it, or uninstall the extension. Once you close, and the resources usage drops, then the problem is with whatever was open in that tab. Make sure to compare to the value we just shared above.
A second method to figure out if any background process or inactive tab in Microsoft Edge is consuming is to look through the Private work set. Consider this as a subpart of the Edge Process, and according to Microsoft, more than 80% of a commit in the private working set, and that is not the active tab, would be considered excessive.
The keyword is the Active Tab, which also means there is a tab that is taking too much memory in the background is problematic.
To figure out which is taking most of the committed memory, we will use the Resource Manager and the Browser’s task manager.
Type Resource Monitor in the Start menu, and click to launch once it is in the list, Sort by name so you can see the msedge.exe process and the commit size.
Next, on the Edge browser, use Sift+Esc to open the browser’s task manager. Right-click on the columns, and select PID, Commit Size, Memory (Private working set), Name, Status, User Name, and CPU
Note the PID, which takes a lot of resources, and then switch to Windows Task Manager. If the process’s private working set is greater than 80% of your commit, then close it. Also, you will need to report it to Microsoft.
Other things you can try if Edge shows high memory or CPU usage
- Open
edge://settings/systemand turn off Use hardware acceleration when available - Open
edge://settings/startHomeNTPand turn off Preload the new tab page for a faster experience setting - Clear Edge browser cache regularly
- Remove unwanted browser extensions, addons, and themes
- Reset Microsoft Edge browser
- Use the Modify/Reinstall button in Settings.
- Open Settings > Apps > Apps and features and search for Edge. Press Modify. This will reinstall Edge, and you will see a new icon placed on the desktop.
- If nothing helps, download and fresh-install Microsoft Edge.
To summarize – A browser can become resource-hungry and slow down a computer, but the browser might not be at fault. It could be an open tab, an extension running in the background, or a website which advertisement which slows down the computer. The only way to figure it out is to check if it is taking resource and close it.
At times processes like GPU, Audio-video service, network service might be at fault. In that case, restarting the browser might help.
That said, if you need to keep the website open, I would suggest you close other tabs and work with them. You can also use another browser, check if the issue persists, and get the work done.
I hope the post helped you figure out why your Microsoft Edge caused high memory usage.
How do I fix high memory usage on Windows 11?
There are multiple reasons why your RAM usage is high on Windows 11. Every program requires some amount of memory to run on Windows. RAM consumption increases when you open multiple programs. Closing the opened programs free up memory and the RAM usage again comes back to normal. However, if you see high memory usage even if no or fewer program(s) are running, there might be some hardware or software issues. To fix high memory usage, you can try some fixes, like repairing your system files, running a Chkdsk scan, updating drivers, running the memory diagnostic tool to check your RAM health, etc.
Read next: Microsoft Edge won’t open on Windows 11/10.
