How to determine how much memory a program is using
Question
How to determine how much memory a program is using?
Answer
Each software program on a computer will use different amounts of memory when it is running, either actively or when idle. The packaging of a software program will provide a rough idea of the minimum and recommended amount of memory a computer should have in order to run the program, but not the exact amount the program will use itself. To determine how much memory a program is using, follow the below steps.
Microsoft Windows users
Linux users
Apple users
- Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc on the keyboard to open the Windows Task Manager.
- In the Task Manager window click the Processes tab if not already selected.
As can be seen by the above example picture, in the Processes tab you'll see each of the running processes including how much memory they're using. For example, the highlighted firefox.exe is using over 1GB of memory.
Tip: Clicking the Memory column title will allow you to sort the programs by how much memory they're using. In the above example, we're sorting the programs from the most used memory to the least used memory.
Linux users can use the top command to display their current total memory, used memory and free memory. In addition to seeing this information the top command will list each of the PID and the total memory they are using.
Additional information
- See our memory definition for additional information and related links.