How-to guide
How to make Chrome use less memory
Turn on Memory Saver in Chrome’s Settings > Performance so idle tabs sleep on their own. To free memory right now, press ⌘K with TabCmdr and run Suspend Inactive Tabs.
Quick answer
Free memory now in three steps
- ⌘K
Step 1
Open the palette
Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux. Use the window with too many tabs.
- suspend
Step 2
Type suspend
Suspend Inactive Tabs shows under Commands.
- ↵
Step 3
Press Enter
Other tabs in this window unload. Pinned tabs stay.
Chrome's way
See which tabs use the most memory
Chrome has its own task manager. Press Shift+Esc on Windows and Linux. On a Mac, open the More menu (⋮) and choose More tools > Task manager.
It lists every open tab and extension with the memory it uses. Click the Memory footprint column to put the biggest at the top. To close one, select it and click End process.
Turn on Memory Saver
Memory Saver is built into Chrome. It unloads tabs you haven’t used for a while.
- Open the More menu (⋮) and choose Settings.
- Choose Performance on the left.
- Turn on Memory Saver.
- Pick how soon tabs go inactive. Moderate waits longest, Balanced is the recommended middle, and Maximum frees memory soonest.
A tab that Chrome made inactive reloads when you go back to it. To keep a site running, such as a music player or a web app you check all day, add it under Always keep these sites active on the same page.
Source: Google’s Chrome performance settings help page, checked in October 2026.
TabCmdr's way
Free memory right now with TabCmdr
Memory Saver works on a timer. TabCmdr’s Suspend Inactive Tabs command works the moment you run it. TabCmdr is a keyboard launcher that lives in your browser. Add it from the Chrome Web Store first. It has a 7-day free trial and needs no account.
Step 1: Open the palette in the crowded window
Press ⌘+K on a Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux. Do it in the window with the tabs you want to unload, because the command only touches the window you’re in.
Step 2: Type suspend
Suspend Inactive Tabs shows up under Commands, already highlighted.
suspend finds the Suspend Inactive Tabs command.Step 3: Press Enter
The palette closes and every tab in the window is unloaded, apart from:
- the tab you’re on,
- pinned tabs,
- tabs that are already suspended.
A message at the bottom of the page says how many it unloaded, such as Suspended 7 tabs, or No tabs to suspend if there was nothing to do. Suspended tabs stay in the tab bar with their titles and icons. Click one and it loads again.
Before you run it:
- Pin anything that should keep running, such as a tab playing music or a call. Suspend Inactive Tabs skips pinned tabs.
- Save what you’re typing in other tabs. A suspended tab reloads when you come back to it, and some sites lose text you hadn’t saved.
Close the tabs you don’t need
Fewer open tabs means less for Chrome to keep in memory. Type :c close in the palette to see the commands that close several tabs at once.
:c close lists every close command.| Command | What it closes |
|---|---|
| Close Duplicate Tabs | Extra copies of the same page, in every window. The first copy stays open. |
| Close Other Tabs | Every tab in this window except the one you’re on and your pinned tabs. |
| Close Tabs to the Right | Tabs to the right of the one you’re on, in this window. Pinned tabs stay. |
| Close Tabs to the Left | Tabs to the left of the one you’re on, in this window. Pinned tabs stay. |
Closed one you still needed? Reopen it from the recently closed list.
Try it on your own tabs
Works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi and Opera.
Install for Chrome