Chrome has used 10 times more RAM than Safari on macOS Big Sur in recent tests

In normal and easy web browsing, Google Chrome uses 10 times more RAM than Safari on macOS Big Sur, according to a test by Flotato creator Morten Just (via immoral).

In a blog post, Just points out 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 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro with 32 GB of RAM. In the first round of testing, Just simulated a typical navigation pattern for opening Twitter, scrolling, then opening a new Gmail tab and composing an email.

Under that test, I just discovered that Chrome reached 1 GB of RAM, while Safari used only 80 MB of RAM. However, the two-tab test was just the beginning.

With 54 tabs open, I just found that Google Chrome used 24 times more RAM on the tab compared to Safari. Both browsers, according to Just, had no extensions, and this specific test was performed on the MacBook Pro itself, not on a virtual machine. According to his findings, Chrome used 290 MB of RAM per open tab, while Safari used only 12 MB of RAM per open tab.

Although the results are obvious, Just says that Google Chrome “will do its best to manage its memory usage between tabs” in an effort to keep the current tab “fast and responsive”. In its tests, Just found that its own application, Flotato, an easy alternative to Chrome, which creates web-based applications, used significantly less RAM than Safari and Chrome.

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

With ‌macOS Big Sur‌, Safari received significant updates that surpassed Chrome. Apple says that Safari on OSmacOS Big Sur „is” 50% faster on average when it loads frequently visited websites than Chrome “and that Safari offers up to an hour and a half more video streaming and an hour longer normal web browsing on a single upload, compared to Chrome and Firefox.