Why Is Chrome Slow? A Step-by-Step Guide to Speeding It Up

A slow Chrome usually comes down to three causes: too many tabs open at once, extensions eating resources in the background, and an out-of-date browser. The fastest way to start fixing it is to press Shift + Esc on Windows to open Chrome's Task Manager and see which tab or extension is consuming memory and CPU. If you work through the steps below in order, most cases are solved in the first few.

Diagnose first: Chrome's Task Manager

Start by measuring instead of guessing. Chrome's own task manager gives more detail than your operating system's: it lists every tab, extension and helper process separately.

• Windows: Shift + Esc
• macOS and others: Three-dot menu in the top right > More tools > Task manager

Sort the list by the "Memory footprint" or "CPU" column. If you see a tab or extension with consistently high CPU usage, you've found the source of the problem. Select it and click "End process" to close it immediately.

Common patterns you'll see here:

• A single tab with video, a live stream or animated ads is using most of the CPU.
• Web-based design or spreadsheet apps are consuming lots of memory.
• An extension uses CPU even while you're not doing anything.

8 steps to fix a slow Chrome

1. Update the browser

Three-dot menu > Help > About Google Chrome checks for updates and downloads any that are available. Updates close security holes and include performance fixes. Don't forget to click "Relaunch" afterward; as long as Chrome stays open, it keeps running the old version.

2. Close some tabs

Each tab uses memory as a separate process. If you work with thirty or forty tabs all day, move most of them to bookmarks or your reading list. Organize the tabs that really need to stay open with tab groups.

3. Turn on Memory Saver

Memory Saver, under Settings > Performance, puts tabs you haven't used for a while to sleep and frees their memory for other tabs. You can exclude some sites, such as a music or chat app that needs to stay active.

4. Review your extensions

Type chrome://extensions in the address bar. Turn off extensions you don't use. To find out whether an extension is causing the problem, disable them all and use the browser for a while; if things improve, turn them back on one at a time to find the culprit.

5. Test in an incognito window

Open an incognito window with Ctrl + Shift + N. Extensions don't run in incognito by default. If the same site is fast in incognito, the problem is most likely an extension or the data stored for that site.

6. Clear the cache and site data

Open the clear browsing data window with Ctrl + Shift + Delete. Start with only "Cached images and files." Clearing cookies will sign you out of many sites, so only do that if necessary. If you're having trouble with one site, you can delete just that site's data from the site info icon in the address bar.

7. Check hardware acceleration

The "Use graphics acceleration when available" option under Settings > System improves performance on most computers. With some graphics drivers, though, it can cause display glitches or stuttering. If you see symptoms like that, try turning the option off and relaunching the browser.

8. Reset your settings

If nothing else works, use Settings > Reset settings > "Restore settings to their original defaults." This resets your startup page, search engine and pinned tabs, disables extensions and clears temporary data. Bookmarks, history and saved passwords are not deleted.

Watch the background settings

Chrome can keep running in the background even after you close it. If "Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed" under Settings > System is on, some extensions and apps consume resources while you're not using the browser. Turn it off if you don't need it.

Don't overlook the computer itself, either. If your disk is nearly full, memory is low or other heavy programs are running at the same time, Chrome may stay slow no matter how much you tidy it up.

Is the problem Chrome or the computer?

There's a simple way to tell. On Windows, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the operating system's Task Manager and look at memory and disk usage. If memory and disk stay high even with Chrome closed, the problem is independent of the browser; you need to cut down on startup programs, free up disk space or update the system. If things get noticeably worse when Chrome opens, go back to the steps above.

Your internet connection is another frequent source of confusion. If pages take a long time to load but run smoothly once they're open, the problem is most likely your network, not the browser. You can easily confirm this by opening the same page in another browser or on another network.

Checking for malware

If your search engine changes on its own, or unwanted pop-ups or new tabs keep appearing, the slowdown may come from unwanted software. First remove any extensions you don't recognize at chrome://extensions, then run a full scan with your operating system's security software.

An example scenario

A marketing specialist notices the browser getting noticeably slower every afternoon. Opening the task manager with Shift + Esc, she sees that a video tab she opened in the morning and forgot about, plus an extension that constantly scans page content, are tying up the CPU. She closes the video tab, changes the extension's site access to "On click" and turns on Memory Saver. Diagnosis and fix take a few minutes, because she starts with measurement instead of guesswork.

Quick checklist

• Chrome is up to date and has been relaunched.
• No process in Task Manager is using high CPU constantly.
• The number of open tabs is reasonable, and the rest are grouped.
• Memory Saver is on.
• Unused extensions have been removed.
• The background running setting matches your needs.

To fix your tab habits for good, also check out the Chrome tab management article on our blog. Weras Labs' tab organizing tool, Tab Sweeper, is currently in development.

Conclusion

A slow Chrome is rarely a mystery. Measure with Task Manager, install updates, slim down your tabs and extensions, and turn on Memory Saver. These four steps are enough in most cases; for the rest, the incognito test, clearing the cache and resetting settings come into play.