How to identify and disable resource hogging extensions on Chrome

Google Chrome is a resource-intensive browser. You can close tabs to free up RAM, but extensions also run in the background constantly and consume no fewer resources. Here’s how you can find and disable resource-hogging extensions on Chrome.

Where to find resource-hogging extensions on Chrome

Similar to your Windows or Mac computer, Chrome has its own built-in task manager. From here, you can see how much resources a tab, an application or an extension takes up.

To access that, click the “Menu” button located in the upper right corner of Chrome’s toolbar and choose to go to More Tools -> Task Manager.

Here, you will see all the active extensions at the bottom of the list. You can also click the “Memory Footprint” tab to sort all processes based on RAM usage.

Go through this list and identify memory-hogging extensions. There may be extensions that take up more than 500MB of RAM. This is completely unusual for small extensions, which use only 50-100MB of RAM.

You cannot disable or delete extensions here, but you can temporarily disable them. If an extension is using more than necessary, you can select it and click the “End Process” button to stop it from the running process.

The extension will be deactivated, and you will not find it on the Chrome toolbar. When you restart the Chrome browser, the extension should be active again. To reload the failed extension, go to Menu -> More Tools -> Extensions and click the “Reload” button.

How to disable or remove extensions hogging resources on Chrome

While searching for resource-hogging extensions on Chrome, you may come across some unused extensions. You may also encounter extensions that need to be removed since they drain too much RAM.

To disable or remove an extension, click the Menu button (3 dots) located on the Chrome toolbar, then go to More Tools -> Extensions.

Here, you will see all the installed extensions. At the top of the page, you can search for a specific extension.

To disable the Chrome extension, click the corresponding toggle switch. The extension will quickly disappear from the Chrome toolbar and you will not be able to access it.

Despite the fact that the extension has been disabled, it still exists. If you want to remove it from Chrome once and forever, press the “Remove” button.

Then, from the pop-up window, confirm your decision by clicking the “Remove” button.

The Chrome extension will now be deleted and will no longer “scramble” for the RAM on your computer.