Top 5 Memory consuming apps you use on Mac

Lora Savenko
An affiliate manager with a passion to write about Mac applications
September 24, 2021
minutes to read

In this article, we consider memory usage on Mac and which applications are the most greedy in use of RAM. Immediately it is worth mentioning that we shall consider only those applications that are used by the majority of users and will not involve heavy professional programs. Also, we will use the average mac memory usage, not counting the moments when the application is buggy or performs some rare complex actions. For example uploading new messages in Mail, adding a new account.

Screenshot of Mac RAM usage will be from the application for cleaning of inactive RAM – Memory Cleaner.

Apps with a High RAM Usage:

#5 Apple Apps such as Mail, App Store and Finder.

Memory Cleaner showing high memory usage of Mail

It should be noted that sometimes they can be up to 200 MB without any good reason, just while normal operating or especially in the background mode. Therefore, we recommend them off if they are not needed.


#4 Pixelmator

Memory Cleaner showing high memory usage of pixelmator

Pixelmator, like any graphic design application, requires a high CPU. If you are not using the program at the moment, we recommend closing the app and stop it from eating your memory in the background.


#3 Skype and Other Messengers

Memory Cleaner showing high memory usage of Skype

The amount of RAM occupied by Skype starts with 100 MB and can reach up to 500 MB.

#2  Cloud Storage Managers like Dropbox, Google Drive or others.

Memory Cleaner showing high memory usage of Dropbox

Applications of this type assume that they are active all the time. However, they can either take a small 60 MB or reach up to 300 MB. Turning them off is not very convenient, so we recommend cleaning the RAM with Memory Cleaner. The application can clean unused Dropbox (or other) memory.


#1 Google Chrome and other browsers

memory consumer chrome

The voracity of browsers usually is limited only by the amount of your RAM. Browsers kick off with about 500 MB and add 50-100 MB on average for every opened tab. Google Chrome’s RAM usage is high and among all the browsers it is the undisputed champion. It is conditioned by a bunch of built-in features for developers and extensions, unlike Internet Explorer which lags because it lags. In order to stabilize the recommend closing the unused tabs.

top memory eaters

Write in the comments which apps use a lot of RAM on your Mac. As well we recommend you to read the following article: How to make your Mac run faster.

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