Google Chrome 89 uses less memory on Windows, Android and macOS

Google has improved Chrome’s memory management with version 89. The ‘browsing process’ would take up to 22 percent less memory on Windows. The macOS and Android versions of Chrome would also use less RAM.

Chrome 89 has received various optimizations for memory usage, Google reports on its Chromium blog. For example, the web browser would use up to 100MB less memory per tab. The company achieves this by taking back memory that the tab isn’t actively using, such as images scrolled out of view.

In addition, Windows and Android use PartitionAlloc, an improved memory allocator. On Windows, the browser process would take up to 22 percent less memory thanks to this new allocator. The renderer would use eight percent less memory and the memory use of the gpu is reduced by three percent, Google reports.

The Android version of Google’s web browser would also use up to 5 percent less memory, boot 7.5 percent faster and load pages up to 2 percent faster. The mobile browser would also crash less often. Android 10 devices or newer with at least 8GB of memory should see additional performance improvements. Google claims that the browser loads web pages on such devices, among other things, up to 8.5 percent faster.

Google Chrome for macOS uses up to eight percent less memory with version 89, the company claims. That would be good for ‘more than 1GB’ of memory savings in certain cases. The Apple Energy Impact score for tabs running in the background would also be 65 percent lower on macOS with Chrome 89. Google claims that this makes Mac computers run cooler with lower fan speeds.

Google has been working on reducing memory usage by Chrome for some time now. For example, in version 87, which was released in November, the tech giant already promised that the web browser would use less memory. That update also reduced CPU usage and boot time.