How to Reduce RAM Usage on Mac [9 Tricks]

If your Mac is running very slowly, it's mostly because your memory (RAM) is being fully used. The best way to speed up your Mac is to reduce the RAM usage.

This complete guide will walk you through what memory (RAM) is, why RAM usage is so high, and more importantly, how to lower RAM usage to make your Mac run as fast as possible.

What Is Memory (RAM) on Mac?

RAM refers to Random Access Memory, which provides storage for ongoing tasks and processes. It is one of the most important components that determine the performance of your Mac. The less RAM space you have, the laggier your Mac will run.

Like Mac's internal storage, RAM is measured in GB. But the difference between them is that RAM is faster to read.

Macs typically come in 8 GB and 16 GB of RAM. Some applications require a lot of RAM to run effectively, such as 3D design software, video editing software, graphic design software, and big games. But under normal circumstances, 8GB of RAM is more than enough.

To check how much RAM your Mac has, click the Apple menu > About This Mac > Memory.

How to Check Memory (RAM) Usage on Mac

1. Click the magnifier icon in the menu bar to open Spotlight.
2. Open Activity Monitor via Spotlight.
3. Click the Memory tab to see which processes are running in the background.

Below the list, there is a small graphic that shows an overview of your memory usage.

• Memory Pressure: It illustrates the availability of memory resources. The green color means that the memory resources are available.
• Physical RAM: The RAM capacity of your Mac.
• Memory Used: Memory used by all applications and macOS processes.
• App Memory: Memory used by applications and their processes.
• Wired Memory: Memory that cannot be compressed or paged out to your startup drive.
• Compressed: Memory that has been compressed to provide more RAM for other processes.
• Cached Files: Memory that has been recently used by the application but is now available for use by other applications.
• Swap Used: Memory used by macOS memory.

Why Is Your RAM Usage So High on Your Mac?

Several factors may cause increased RAM usage. Here are the main ones:

• Multiple applications running simultaneously.
• Too many browser tabs open.
• Running large programs like video games, video editing, and graphic design software.
• Outdated software and macOS.
• System caches and temporary files piling up.
• macOS issues and bugs.
• RAM limitations.

How to Lower Memory (RAM) Usage on Mac

Now that you know how your RAM is used, follow the tricks below to free up your RAM.

1. Restart Your Mac

The easiest way to free up RAM is to restart your Mac. Since RAM is a temporary memory, all temporary files stored on it will be cleared when you restart your Mac.

2. Free Up RAM with Terminal

Restarting your Mac does help free up memory, but it will terminate all your work on the Mac. In this case, you can turn to the terminal to free up RAM.

1. Open the Terminal via Spotlight.
2. Type and run the command: sudo purge.
3. Enter your administrator password and then press the Return button on your keyboard again. After that, your memory will be cleared.

3. Free Up RAM with Third-Party Tools

If the above methods are not convenient for you, you may want to use a third-party tool to help you. BuhoCleaner is the tool you need. It can help you free up RAM in one click.

Just download and install BuhoCleaner on your Mac, open it, and click ToolKit > Free Up RAM > Start. It only takes you a few seconds.

BuhoCleaner can do more jobs for you. Some of its noticeable features are junk file cleaning, app uninstallation, large file and duplicate file removal, startup program management, file shredding, and Spolight rebuilding. It's worth a try.

4. Tidy Up Your Desktop

macOS treats every icon as an active window. The more icons you have on your desktop, the more pressure you put on your memory. If you have a lot of documents, photos, screenshots, and more stored on your desktop, it's time to clean them up.

You don't need to use third-party applications. Apple's built-in decluttering tool is good enough. All you need to do is right-click on your desktop and select Use Stack. The tool will categorize your files and put them in neat little piles.

5. Disable Login Items

Login items are programs that start automatically when you log in to your Mac. These programs help your Mac run properly, but at the same time they can take up a lot of memory space.

Not all startup programs are necessary. It's a good idea to prevent those unnecessary ones from launching when your Mac starts.

Here are the steps:

1. Click the Apple icon > System Settings > General > Login Items.
2. Highlight the apps you want to remove, then click the Minus(-) button under the list.

Alternatively, you can use the free startup program manager BuhoCleaner to take control of your startup programs.

1. Download and install BuhoCleaner on your Mac.
2. Launch it and click on the Startup Items in the sidebar.
3. Click the Scan button to see all the login items and startup services.
4. Change their status as needed.

6. Keep Fewer Finder Windows

In the daily use of your Mac, you may have many Finder windows open. Chances are you forget to close the windows you no longer use in time, and they continue to eat up your memory.

You can close them or merge them by clicking the Finder Menu > Windows > Merge All Windows.

7. Close Browser Tabs You Don't Use

It's no secret that browser tabs eat up your memory space. If you have dozens of tabs open in your browser, they can put a lot of pressure on your memory and make your Mac laggy or become unresponsive.

So, don't forget to close the browser tabs you no longer use.

8. Remove Unused Browser Extensions

Extensions can improve your experience with browsers. But at the same time, they can downgrade your Mac performance because they consume a lot of your memory space.

Therefore, it's a good idea to remove the unused extensions from your browsers.

9. Free Up Storage Space

Did you know that your Mac is likely to take up your memory to store cached files when the disk is full? To avoid this, you'd better start cleaning up your storage space before it runs out. There are many ways to clean storage space.

Learn more from the article: How to Free Disk Space on Mac.

Bonus: How to Monitor Memory (RAM) Usage in Mac Menu Bar

It is not recommended to free up RAM only when it is exhausted. You can use the BuhoCleaner Menu app to monitor memory usage in real-time in the menu bar. When you find that your Mac's RAM usage is too high, you can also decrease it with one click.

How to monitor memory (RAM) usage on Mac with BuhoCleaner Menu:

1. Download, install and launch BuhoCleaner.
2. Click BuhoCleaner Menu > Preferences > Status Menu.
3. Check the box next to Memory Load and you will see your memory usage in the status menu.

   

4. Click the Memory Load in the status menu and then click the blue lightning button next to RAM to release memory with one click.

Conclusion

That's all for how to check memory (RAM) usage and reduce it on Mac. Please note that memory can effect your Mac performance and try to avoid 100% memory usage.