Google brings energy and memory saving mode to Chrome: Here’s how to enable it manually

What is Google Chrome energy and memory saver?

Found in a new ‘Performance’ tab on the Chrome settings page, the Memory Saver functionality works by unloading inactive tabs from memory. Once users navigate to the tab, it is automatically loaded into the memory again. It also allows users to whitelist certain websites so they are not affected by the memory saver, a useful feature for websites that update information in real-time.

On the same page, you can find the new ‘Energy Saver’ feature as well. When turned on, Chrome will try to save on battery by limiting its background activity and disabling certain animations, and video frame rates and disabling the smooth scrolling feature. Users have the option to turn on the energy saver as soon as their computer is unplugged or automatically enable it when the battery is less than 20 per cent.

The new feature is available on the latest version of Chrome (v110) but it looks like Google is still rolling it out to some users, so you might want to wait for a while if don’t see it in Chrome settings.

How to enable energy and memory saver on Google Chrome

If you are unable to see the new feature in Google Chrome settings, there’s a quick way to enable it manually.

All you need to do is launch Google Chrome, type ‘chrome://flags/’ in the address and hit enter. Once done, you will see a new page with a warning on top that says the features are experimental.

Here, you will also see a ‘search flags’ field where you can type ‘Enable the battery saver mode feature in the settings’ or search for ‘#battery-saver-mode-available’.

Now, change the toggle from ‘default’ to ‘enable’ and you are good to go. To enable memory saver, search for ‘Enable the high efficiency mode feature in the settings’ or ‘#high-efficiency-mode-available’. Simply change the toggle from default to enabled and the new ‘Performance’ tab will now be visible in Chrome settings page.

Alternatively, you can also search for the flags by typing ‘chrome://flags/#battery-saver-mode-available’ and ‘chrome://flags/#high-efficiency-mode-available’ in the address bar and changing the corresponding toggles to enabled from default.