[2025 Updated] How to Fix Error Code Out of Memory in Chrome

Even though Chrome holds the title of the most popular browser with about 67% market share, it can still leave you scratching your head when it starts devouring your system memory. It's not unusual to see Chrome turn into a RAM hog.

Fix 1: Close Unnecessary Chrome Tabs

Try closing inactive or idle Chrome tabs before trying the other fixes for the “out of memory” error. Then, reload the webpage that you need to work with. Chrome tabs are notorious for gobbling up exorbitant amounts of RAM even if they’re inactive. Closing idle tabs and a page refresh should solve the problem.

If the tabs aren’t responding and the issue persists, you can try closing Chrome tabs manually. On Windows 11, you can do that from the task manager. 

Here’re the steps for it:

   1. Right-click on the Windows taskbar and select “Task Manager”. Or use the shortcut “CTRL + ALT + Delete” and click Task Manager.

   2. In the Task Manager pop-up window, click “Processes” from the left navigation panel.

   3. From the Name column, open Google Chrome. It contains all the tabs currently opened in Chrome.

   4. Select a tab(s) that seems to be using too much memory and hit “End task” from the top.

This should fix the out of memory issue.

Also Read: How to Fix “An Error Occurred in the Upload. Please Try Again Later.” in WordPress 

Fix 2: Clear Browser Cookies & Cache for Chrome

Sometimes, cookies and cached browser data can clog up Chrome. This typically occurs if you haven’t cleared up the memory in a long time. Or, sometimes cached data may get corrupted for some reason. And this could lead to increased memory usage or memory leaks, eventually causing the “out of memory” error. 

To clear up the cache and cookies, you can use:

• Chrome’s in-built “Delete Cookies and Cache Cleaner”
• BetterBugs Extension to Clear Cache Instantly

Method 1 - Use Chrome’s Built-in Cache and Cookies Cleaner

To clear data with Chrome’s built-in option,

   1. Open the Chrome browser window. 

   2. Copy and paste the following into the address bar “chrome://settings/clearBrowserData”. Hit Enter. This opens the “Delete browsing data” window.

   3. Select the “Time range” for which you want to clear data.

   4. Check the box labeled "Cached images and files” and "Cookies and other site data" under the “Basic” column. Also, uncheck the “Browsing history” option.

Important: Deleting "Cookies and other site data" will sign you out of all the accounts (except your Google account) you've logged into through your browser. Unselect the "Cookies and other site data" if you want to avoid getting logged out.

   5. Hit “Delete data”

You’re good to go. Try reloading the website that you were facing issues with. It should work fine. Also, your sites would load slightly slower than earlier due to cleared cache and cookies data. 

Method 2 - Use BetterBugs for Clearing Cookies & Cache Instantly 

You can use the BetterBugs Chrome extension to clear up cookies and cache data instantly. For this,

1. Download the BetterBugs extension. 
2. Open a website, such as google.com or any other on Chrome. This activates BetterBugs’ all functions for usage.
3. Now, open the extension. 
4. Click the “Clear Cookies & Cache” option.

   5. Check “Clear cache” and “Clear cookies”. Again, note that clearing cookies will sign you out from the logged-in accounts.

   6. Hit “Clear” and voilà! This instantly clears the cache and cookies data.

The “out of memory” error should be gone. 

Fix 3: Manage Chrome Extensions 

Using Chrome extensions is a super handy way to improve productivity while working. However, some extensions can consume significant system resources leading to out of memory errors. Managing them can help. 

Disabling or removing extensions can significantly bring down memory consumption. Here’s how you can do it.

1. Go to “chrome://extensions” in your browser.
2. Disable the extension(s) you don’t use or need by toggling the switch. Or, delete the extension(s) that you don’t want. You’re good to go.

This should fix the error.

Also Read: Top 20 Chrome Extensions for Web Developers

Fix 4: Turn On Memory Saver in Chrome 

As mentioned earlier, idle or inactive Chrome tabs can still keep snacking on your system’s RAM leading to “out of memory” errors. Chrome provides an option to enable Memory Saver to automatically prevent this from happening. The freed-up memory then gets auto-allocated to the active tabs for efficient memory usage.

Here are the steps to enable the Memory Saver option in Chrome:

1. Paste the address “chrome://settings/performance” in your browser. This opens the Performance options window in Chrome Settings.
2. Now, enable the “Memory Saver” with the toggle button as shown below. Also, select an option from “Balanced”, “Moderate” and “Maximum”. 

That’s all you’ve to do to use this fix.

Also Read: [2025 Updated] How to Fix “JavaScript heap out of memory” Error

Fix 5: Check for Chrome Updates 

While modern Chrome installations are set for auto-updates, running an outdated version can cause memory leaks and out of memory errors. To check if you’re running the latest Chrome version, 

   1. Open Chrome and click on the three-dot menu from the top right.

   2. Select “Help” > “About Google Chrome” from the dropdown.

   3. Chrome will automatically check for updates and install them if available.

Fix 6: Disable Graphics Acceleration on Chrome

While enabling graphics acceleration can be a great way to bump up Chrome's performance, it can quickly gobble up memory causing the “Error code: Out of Memory” message to show. 

Disabling graphics acceleration also fixes the issue in most cases. Here are the steps to it.

1. Go to “chrome://settings/system” on Chrome to access system settings.
2. Turn off the toggle switch “Use graphics acceleration when available” and hit “Relaunch”. 

You’re good to go with this fix.

Fix 7: Delete Temporary Files on Windows 

Browsers tend to dump a lot of browsing data as temporary files in Windows. Over time, these files can accumulate and slow down both your system and browser. 

Deleting temp files is another neat trick to fix the out of memory error. Here’s how.

   1. Use the shortcut “Windows + R” to open the Run dialog box.

   2. Type “%temp%” and hit Enter.

   3. Select all files in the Temp folder and delete them. 

You’re good to go.

Fix 8: Increase Virtual Memory Limit on Windows 

Low memory allocation for your Windows system can also cause out of memory errors while using Chrome. When you increase the allocated virtual memory, whenever the physical RAM usage is maxed out, it bumps up the system RAM by swapping memory from your SSD or HDD. And this allows your system to use more memory when required.

Note that, you need admin access to make these changes. Here’s how you can increase the virtual memory limit to fix the error. 

   1. Open “View Advanced system settings” from the Windows search box. 

   2. In the “System Properties” dialog box, click the “Advanced” tab.

   3. Under the Performance option, click the “Settings” button.

   4. In the “Performance Options” dialog box, click the “Advanced” tab.

   5. Under the Virtual memory option, click “Change”.

   6. Uncheck the option “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”.

   7. Select the drive with your OS, and click “Custom size”. 

   8. Set the Initial size (MB) to the Recommended memory size visible down below. Here, that’s 2903. For your system, the value may be different. Please use that value.

   9. Set the Maximum size (MB) to 8192. That’s 8 GB of additional virtual memory allocation when required. 

NOTE: You can allocate the Maximum size (MB) of virtual memory up to 3 times your physical memory. For a PC with 16 GB of RAM, you can set the virtual memory up to 48 GB (49152 MB).

   10. Next, click “Set” 

   11. Finally, hit “OK” to apply the changes. 

   12. Finally, Restart your PC. 

That should fix the memory issues.

Fix 9: Reset Chrome 

If none of the above fixes work, it’s best to roll back your Chrome to default settings. 

Note that resetting Chrome to default would:

• Log out from all synced accounts
• Remove all your personalized settings 
• Disable all extensions
• Delete cookies and other temporary site data

However, this reset will NOT AFFECT your browsing history, saved bookmarks, and passwords.

Here are the steps to resetting Chrome and applying the default settings:

   1. Click the three-dot menu from the top right on Chrome

   2. Click “Settings”.

   3. From the left navigation pane, click “Reset settings”.

   4. Click on “Restore settings to their original defaults”.

   5. Hit the “Reset settings” button.

Additional Consideration: Do A Fresh Installation for Chrome

If all else fails, reinstalling Chrome might be the last option to resolve the out of memory error.