If your fan roars or your laptop gets hot while Chrome is open, a tab, extension or background task may be doing most of the work. Open Chrome’s Task Manager, sort by CPU, and end the task at the top. On a laptop, turn on Energy Saver so Chrome holds back heavy background tabs.
- Press Shift + Esc on Windows and Linux, or select the three-dot More menu > More tools > Task Manager.
- Select the CPU column heading to sort the list by CPU use. Select it again to flip the order if the busiest tasks are at the bottom.
- Select a task you don’t need, such as a tab playing a video or an item labeled “Background page”, and select End process (End task in newer versions). Google warns that unsaved work in that task is lost.
Ending tasks this way comes from Google’s guide to speeding up Chrome, which singles out videos, apps and “Background page” items as tasks worth checking.
Is it Chrome or something else?
Check your computer’s own task list first. On Windows, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and select Task manager. If another program is at the top of the CPU list, the fix is in that program, not in Chrome. If Google Chrome is at the top, keep going.
Turn on Energy Saver (laptops)
Energy Saver is built into Chrome on Windows, Mac and Chromebook computers that have a battery. According to Google’s performance settings guide, it reduces background activity and stops eligible CPU-intensive background tabs. Tabs on a video call or playing audio aren’t affected.
- Select More > Settings.
- On the left, select Performance.
- Turn on Energy Saver and select the setting you want.
Energy Saver works when your laptop is unplugged or its battery is low, and doesn’t turn on while it is plugged in. Google notes that games and video may run differently while it is on. To pause it for a session, select the Energy Saver icon next to the address bar and select Turn off now.
Turn on Memory Saver
On the same Performance page, Memory Saver deactivates tabs you aren’t using so that the tabs you are using run smoothly. Deactivated tabs reload when you go back to them. If Chrome is also using a lot of memory, our guide to fixing Chrome high memory usage covers Memory Saver’s levels and exceptions.
Turn off extensions you don’t use
Google recommends turning off or removing extensions you don’t use. Select More > Extensions > Manage Extensions, switch them all off, and watch the CPU column in Task Manager. Turn them back on one at a time to find the heavy one, and remove it.
Close tabs and quit other apps
Google puts it plainly: the more tabs you have open, the harder Chrome has to work. Close tabs you aren’t using with Ctrl + W (⌘ + W on a Mac), and avoid running many apps at the same time.
Check for unwanted software
If you see pop-ups that won’t go away, a search engine that keeps changing, or extensions you didn’t install, you may have unwanted software. Follow Google’s steps to remove unwanted programs, then reset Chrome from Settings > Reset settings > Restore settings to their original defaults > Reset settings. Google says resetting doesn’t delete or change your bookmarks or saved passwords.
Update Chrome
Google lists updating as the first step to a faster Chrome. Select More > Help > About Google Chrome and select Relaunch if an update is waiting. See our update guide for every platform.
Related problems
If high CPU comes with Chrome locking up, see what to do when Chrome freezes. If the computer is old and everything is slow, see speeding up Chrome on an old computer.