Free memory when you have too many tabs
Updated October 27, 2026
Closing a tab frees its memory completely. Putting it to sleep frees most of it and keeps the tab in your strip. Tab Shelf does both: Clean tabs closes and saves, Sleep tabs unloads without closing. Chrome's own Memory Saver does the sleeping part automatically.
Three ways to free memory
Close the tab
Frees the memory fully. You lose the tab unless you saved it. With Tab Shelf's Clean tabs, it goes to the shelf first.
Put it to sleep
Unloads the page but leaves the tab in the strip. Clicking it reloads the page. Press Sleep tabs in the Tab Shelf popup to sleep every tab you aren't using, except pinned tabs, tabs playing sound, and tabs with unsaved typing or a playing video.
Close duplicates
If you have several copies of one page, closing the extras is the quickest win. See how to close duplicate tabs.
How much memory does a tab use?
It depends on the page. A plain article may use tens of megabytes, while a web app or video page can use several hundred. Tab Shelf's counters use about 60 MB per tab as a rough figure and label it as an estimate. Chrome's Task Manager (Shift+Esc on Windows and Linux, the Window menu on a Mac) shows the real numbers for each tab.
Which should you use?
- Done with it for now: Clean tabs. It is off your screen and still on your shelf.
- Might need it in an hour: Sleep tabs. It stays where you left it.
- Opened it twice: Close duplicates.
Questions
Does closing tabs make Chrome faster?
If you have many tabs open, yes. Fewer open pages means less memory and less background work.
Is sleeping the same as Chrome's Memory Saver?
It uses the same mechanism, but you trigger it yourself with one click instead of waiting for Chrome to decide.
Will a sleeping tab lose what I typed?
Tab Shelf skips tabs with unsaved typing when it has page access. Without page access it can't check, so grant access for the safest result.
Give your tabs somewhere to go.
It's free, and your tabs never leave your computer.
Add to Chrome