Chrome used 10x more RAM than Safari on macOS Big Sur in recent testing

For normal and lightweight web browsing, Google Chrome uses 10x more RAM than Safari on macOS Big Sur, according to a test conducted by Flotato maker Morten Just (via I more

In a blog post, Just outlines that he tested both browsers in two scenarios on the latest version of macOS. The first test was performed on a virtual machine and the second on a 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2019 with 32 GB of RAM. In the first round of testing, Just simulated opening a typical Twitter browsing pattern, scrolling around, then opening a new tab with Gmail and composing an email.

During that test, Just found that Chrome achieved 1 GB RAM usage, while Safari only used 80 MB RAM. However, the two-tab test was just the beginning.

With 54 tabs open, Just found that Google Chrome used 24x more RAM per tab compared to Safari. Both browsers were free of extensions, according to Just, and this particular test was performed on his real MacBook Pro, not a virtual machine. According to its findings, Chrome used 290MB of RAM per open tab, while Safari used only 12MB of RAM per open tab.

While the results are grim, Just says Google Chrome is probably “doing its utmost to manage memory usage across different tabs,” trying to keep the current tab “fast and responsive.” In his testing, Just found that its own application, Flotato, a lightweight alternative to Chrome that creates apps from web pages, used significantly less RAM than both Safari and Chrome.

Chrome is known as a memory eater on Mac and Windows computers, a problem Google recently tried to fix.

With macOS Big Sur, Safari received important updates that further surpassed Chrome. Apple says Safari on MacOS Big Sur is “on average 50% faster to load frequently visited websites than Chrome,” and Safari offers up to an hour and a half longer video streaming and up to an hour longer of normal Internet browsing. one charge, compared to Chrome and Firefox.