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Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge: Saving extra resources when you need it most

Written By published December 6, 2022

To help users save memory and CPU resources, Microsoft Edge automatically puts tabs to sleep until you return to them. This keeps your browser fast and responsive, even if you use a large number of tabs.

Starting in Microsoft Edge 105, we automatically sleep high resource tabs when your device’s memory is near its limit. In September 2022, we slept 1.38 billion tabs to relieve memory pressure on Windows devices as a part of this update.

When memory usage is too high, many browsers discard tabs to save memory – but those pages must be fully reloaded before you can return to them. Sleeping tabs resume without reloading, so you can return to your work faster. Sleeping a tab saves 83% of its memory on average, so sleeping your high resource tabs can relieve memory pressure without slowing down your workflow in Microsoft Edge.

We’re always listening to user feedback to improve performance! Share your experience or make a suggestion using the “Help and feedback” button under “…” (“Settings and more”). If you have any questions about sleeping tabs visit Learn about performance features in Microsoft Edge.