How to Check Microsoft Edge Memory Usage

This article explains how to open the Browser Task Manager in Microsoft Edge and check for any rogue processes. But first, use the Windows Task Manager to see if Edge is the cause of high memory usage or any other program causing the slowdown on your computer.

Use Windows Task Manager to Check Microsoft Edge Memory Usage

The Windows Task Manager tells you about the different processes running concurrently on your PC. You can tell immediately if the Edge browser is using up the resources or some other program. Use the Windows Task Manager first and then the Browser Task Manager in Edge during high memory usage events.

1. Open Task Manager with keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Esc. Alternatively, type "Task Manager" in the Windows Search bar and select the result.

2. On the Processes tab, the Memory column lists all active processes and the amount of memory they are using. Tap on the column header to arrange it in descending or ascending order.

3. If the Memory column isn’t visible in the Task Manager's minimized view, select More details on the bottom of the Task Manager window to expand the view.

4. Check the memory usage of each active process and see if Microsoft Edge is consuming a higher percentage.

When Edge is the problem, the browser’s own task manager can help spot the process that is consuming most of the memory. 

Use Microsoft Edge Browser Task Manager to Check Memory Usage

All Chromium browsers have Task Managers. Microsoft Edge is no different. The Browser Task Manager can help you pinpoint any tab, extension, or background process that’s hogging the PC’s memory, processor, or network bandwidth. The Browser Task Manager makes it easy to control the different processes running in the background and kill them if necessary.  

1. Launch Microsoft Edge.

2. Select the ellipses button (three dots) on the upper-right corner of the Edge browser. From the dropdown menu, select More tools > Browser task manager.

3. To use a keyboard shortcut, press Shift + Esc to open the Browser Task Manager.

4. The Task Manager displays every running process on the browser.  Edge shows the real-time data for four process types in four columns. Click any column header to sort the processes by their resource usage. 

   • Memory: This is the amount of memory each process or tab is using in kilobytes.
   • CPU: This shows the percentage of your total processing power a tab or process is drawing from the PC's CPU.
   • Network: This shows the amount of network bandwidth used by the tab or process in bytes or kilobytes per second. Any tab with running video or audio will grab a more significant share.
   • Process ID: This shows the process ID of the tab or process. Each browser tab, extensions, renderers run as distinct processes. They are sandboxed from one another, and you can identify the process by their PID and troubleshoot any problems in one of the tabs.

5. To see more data on any browser process, right-click anywhere on the column header. Select the process from the list. For instance, GPU memory consumption will be high when Edge uses the graphics processing unit to accelerate webpage rendering. 

6. To close any unwanted process or tab that is hogging resources, locate the specific task in the list and select End process. 

Recommended Memory Usage for Different Processes in Edge

Microsoft Edge outlines the optimum memory usage of different processes in a blog post. Here are their recommendations with explanations on the metrics the browser uses to benchmark performance:

• Browser process: 400 MB. 
• Renderer process: 500 MB. 
• Subframe process: 75 MB. 
• GPU Process: 1.75GB
• Utility process: 30 MB
• Extension process and plug-in processes: 15-0 MB

You can solve most high memory usage problems by terminating the offending tab. Close the tab that’s eating into the memory or uninstall the extension. Open the browser task manager again to see if the memory usage has stabilized. If it has, then the problem was with the closed tab or the uninstalled extension.