Every page reload increases RAM usage #404
Description
Problem
With DevTools open, every page reload causes an increase in RAM usage. Depending on the website, each reload adds approximately 10–25 MB of memory. Closing DevTools immediately frees the RAM.
I’ve been noticing this behavior for about a year, but recently it has become significantly worse. This issue is particularly disruptive during web development, where frequent page reloads with DevTools open are part of the normal workflow.
The screenshot shows RAM usage after approximately 3 hours.
Video showing RAM usage over time (percentage jumps correspond to page reloads):
edge-ram.mp4
The issue was tested with all DevTools settings disabled, in a clean browser profile with no extensions, history, or stored data.
This behavior does not occur in other Chromium-based browsers.
Expected behaviour
Same as in other Chromium-based browsers: RAM usage should be released after a page reload and should not continuously accumulate over time.
Steps to reproduce
- Open any website.
- Open DevTools.
- Reload the page repeatedly and observe RAM usage.
Information
Edge version: 143.0.3650.96 (x64)
OS: Windows 11 x64 (build 26200.7462)
Tested on 3 different hardware configurations:
- Intel and AMD CPUs
- DDR4 and DDR5 memory
- NVMe 4.0 drives