How to Make Chrome Faster: 12 Fixes That Actually Help

What actually makes Chrome faster right now?

Chrome usually slows down for one of three reasons: too many tabs sitting open in memory, an extension running scripts on every page you visit, or a browser cache and version that have gotten stale. Fix those three first, in that order, before you touch anything else.

The first three rows take under two minutes combined and solve most everyday slowdowns. For a deeper dive into which extensions are worth keeping running, see our tab manager extensions guide before you start uninstalling things at random.

How do I turn on Chrome's Memory Saver and Energy Saver?

Click the three-dot menu, open Settings, then turn on Memory Saver and Energy Saver under the Performance tab. Both are free and built into Chrome. Memory Saver puts background tabs to sleep so they stop drawing CPU and RAM, and Energy Saver throttles animations and background activity to extend battery life.

1. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of Chrome.
2. Select Settings.
3. Click Performance in the left sidebar.
4. Toggle Memory Saver on.
5. Toggle Energy Saver on if you're using a laptop.
6. Add sites you need running in the background, like a music player, to the always-active list under Performance.

Memory Saver reloads a sleeping tab automatically the moment you click back onto it, so you rarely notice it happened. The trade-off is that a tab with unsaved form data or an in-progress upload can lose that state when Chrome discards it, which is exactly why the always-active list exists.

How do I find out which extension is slowing Chrome down?

Open Chrome's Task Manager with Shift+Esc and look at the rows labeled 'Extension:'. The memory and CPU columns show exactly which one is the heaviest, instead of guessing from the extensions list alone.

If nothing stands out, disable your extensions one at a time from chrome://extensions, reloading a heavy page after each one, until the slowdown disappears. That isolates the culprit without you losing the rest of your setup. Check what extension permissions actually mean while you're there, since an extension with broad site access is worth a second look even if it isn't the slow one.

Not every extension deserves to go. A tab manager extension that saves sessions can replace dozens of open tabs with one lightweight list, while a password manager like Bitwarden runs lighter than most people expect because it only activates on login forms. For more picks, see our roundup of the best Chrome extension managers.

Does closing tabs actually make Chrome faster?

Yes. Each open tab keeps its own process and a share of memory, even after Memory Saver puts it to sleep, so fewer tabs means less to manage overall. The fix isn't necessarily closing tabs for good; it's finding somewhere else to put them.

Tab groups

Chrome's built-in feature (right-click a tab, then Add tab to new group) that collapses related tabs into one labeled strip instead of a wall of favicons.

Reading list

The bookmark-star menu's built-in queue for pages you want to read later without keeping the tab open now.

Session manager extension

A tool like Tab Session Manager that snapshots your whole window so you can close it and reopen the exact same tabs whenever you need them.

None of these cost you the tab's content. They just move it out of active memory until you actually need it again, which is a better trade than either hoarding forty tabs or losing your place entirely.

Will clearing cache and cookies speed up Chrome?

Clearing the cache mainly fixes pages that load incorrectly, but it can also help speed if your cache has grown large or corrupted over months of browsing. It won't undo a slowdown caused by too many extensions or too many open tabs.

1. Open Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data.
2. Choose the time range All time for the deepest clean.
3. Check Cached images and files only if you want to avoid clearing history or passwords.
4. Click Clear data.

Should I turn on hardware acceleration or change Chrome flags?

Leave hardware acceleration on. It's enabled by default at Settings > System > Use graphics acceleration when available and lets Chrome offload video and page rendering to your GPU instead of the CPU, which matters most on video-heavy or graphics-heavy sites.

Chrome flags (chrome://flags) are a different story. They're experimental features Google hasn't finished testing, and enabling one because a forum post promised a speed boost can just as easily cause crashes or broken pages. If a flag change causes problems, the Reset all to default button at the top of that page undoes everything at once.

Can a full disk or a messy downloads folder slow Chrome down?

Yes. Chrome and your whole operating system slow down when free disk space runs low, and a giant unfinished download can tie up bandwidth and memory while it's active.

A lightweight download manager keeps this visible instead of hidden in a folder you never check. Download Manager adds a popup showing recent downloads so you're not hunting through a cluttered downloads folder, and for large files, Turbo Download Manager Classic splits the file into multiple simultaneous connections so it finishes faster and frees up the browser sooner.

Once a month, sort your Downloads folder by size and delete or move anything you no longer need. Old installers, forgotten PDFs, and duplicate files are the usual culprits behind a slow, full disk.

Do these fixes work on Chromebook, Mac, and mobile Chrome?

Memory Saver and Energy Saver exist on Windows, Mac, and Linux Chrome, but ChromeOS already manages tab discarding at the operating-system level, so you won't find the exact same toggle there. Trimming extensions from chrome://extensions still helps on a Chromebook.

Chrome for Android and iOS doesn't support desktop extensions at all, so none of the extension-based fixes above apply on a phone or tablet. On mobile, your best options are closing tabs from the tab switcher, clearing browsing data from the app's own Settings > Privacy menu, and keeping the Chrome app itself up to date.

When should I just reset Chrome to default settings?

Reset Chrome when the slowdown started right after installing something and you can't pin down which extension or setting caused it, or when you've tried the fixes above and Chrome still feels slow.

1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll down and click Reset settings.
3. Click Restore settings to their original defaults.
4. Confirm by clicking Reset settings in the dialog.

A reset disables all your extensions, clears your homepage and default search engine choices, and clears cookies and cache, but it doesn't touch your saved bookmarks, passwords, or browsing history. Re-enable extensions one at a time afterward so you don't recreate the same slowdown.

If Chrome is still slow after a full reset, the bottleneck is likely your computer's RAM or CPU rather than anything inside the browser. Open Shift+Esc Task Manager to see how much memory Chrome is using compared with your device's total, and treat another round of settings changes as a lower priority than a hardware upgrade at that point.