Microsoft Teams Using a Lot of Memory? Here’s How to Fix It

If Microsoft Teams is eating up your RAM and slowing everything down, you’re not alone. I’ve seen it happen on brand-new laptops with 16 GB of RAM. Teams quietly sits in the background and gobbles up 800 MB to 1 GB without you even being in a meeting. The moment you join a call, that number can shoot past 1.5 GB easily.

In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through exactly why this happens and, more importantly, what you can actually do about it.

Why Does Microsoft Teams Use So Much Memory?

Let me first help you understand why Microsoft Teams uses so much memory, and what’s going on under the hood.

Microsoft Teams is built on Electron, a framework that basically wraps a web app inside a desktop shell. Electron apps use the Chromium engine (the same one behind Google Chrome) to render the interface. If you’ve ever complained that Chrome uses too much RAM, Teams has the same problem baked in.

Here’s what makes it worse:

• Teams loads a large number of background libraries even when you’re not actively using it
• The app continuously renders UI elements, chat updates, and notifications
• When you’re in a video call, Teams processes audio, video, and screen sharing simultaneously
• The Microsoft Teams Meeting Add-in running in Outlook adds another layer of memory overhead

Microsoft itself has publicly acknowledged this problem. As of late 2025, they announced a fix in the form of a new process called ms-teams_modulehost.exe, which splits calling features away from the main Teams process. This is a smart architectural move — it means a performance spike during calls won’t tank your entire Teams experience. But until that fully rolls out across all environments, the problem remains real for most users.

So let’s fix it.

How to Fix When Microsoft Teams Uses a Lot of Memory

Here are some ways to fix when Microsoft Teams uses a lot of memory.

Method 1: Clear the Teams Cache

Teams stores a lot of temporary data, cached files, images, and message history snippets, and over time, this cache can balloon in size and start slowing things down. Clearing it won’t delete your messages or settings; it just clears the local junk.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Fully quit Teams (make sure it’s not running in the system tray)
2. Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog
3. Type %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams and press Enter
4. In the folder that opens, delete the following folders:
   • Cache
   • GPU Cache
   • blob_storage
   • databases
   • IndexedDB
   • Local Storage
5. Restart Teams

I usually do this once every month or two as part of regular maintenance. It keeps things running smoothly and takes less than two minutes.

Method 2: Disable Teams Auto-Start

One thing people often overlook is that Teams starts automatically with Windows. So even before you’ve opened a single app in the morning, Teams is already using memory.

If you don’t need Teams running the moment you boot up, disabling auto-start is an easy win:

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager
2. Go to the Startup apps tab
3. Find Microsoft Teams in the list
4. Right-click it and select Disable

Now Teams will only start when you actually open it. This alone can free up noticeable memory on machines with 8 GB or less RAM.

Alternatively, you can also turn this off from within Teams itself:

• Go to Settings → General
• Uncheck Auto-start application

Method 3: Turn Off Read Receipts in Microsoft Teams

This one might surprise you. Read receipts, those little indicators showing someone has read your message, generate continuous background activity.

To turn off read receipts:

1. Open Teams Settings
2. Go to Privacy
3. Toggle off Read receipts

These won’t make a massive difference individually, but combined with the other methods, every bit adds up, especially on older hardware.

Method 4: Adjust Windows Virtual Memory

If you’re on a machine with 4 GB or 8 GB of RAM and Teams is pushing things to the limit, adjusting your system’s virtual memory (page file) can help. Virtual memory lets Windows use a portion of your hard drive as overflow RAM.

Here’s how to set it manually:

1. Press Windows + S and search for “Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows”
2. Click the Advanced tab → under Virtual Memory, click Change
3. Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives
4. Select your main drive (usually C:)
5. Choose Custom size and set the initial and maximum values — a common recommendation is 1.5x to 2x your physical RAM (in MB)
6. Click Set → OK and restart your PC

This won’t reduce how much memory Teams uses, but it prevents the system from slowing to a crawl when memory gets tight.

Method 5: Use Teams in a Browser Instead

Here’s an option not enough people consider — the web version of Microsoft Teams (teams.microsoft.com) is lighter than the desktop app. If you’re on a resource-constrained machine and mainly use Teams for chat and basic meetings, the browser version does the job without the Electron overhead.

The trade-off is that some advanced features, like noise suppression, certain device controls, and background blur, may be limited in the browser. But for day-to-day messaging and calls, it holds up well.

Method 6: Keep Teams Updated

Microsoft has been actively working on performance improvements. The new process split (separating calling into ms-teams_modulehost.exe) is one example of architectural changes aimed directly at reducing memory load during calls.

To check for updates:

1. Click the three-dot menu (…) in Teams
2. Look for Check for updates or go to Help → Check for updates

Staying on the latest version ensures you’re getting the performance fixes Microsoft is rolling out, not just the feature ones.

Here’s a practical order to follow if you’re starting from scratch:

• First: Clear the cache — cleans up accumulated junk
• Second: Disable auto-start — stops idle memory drain
• Third: Disable read receipts — small but cumulative savings
• Fourth: Keep Teams Updated
• Fifth: Adjust virtual memory — helps when you’re hitting hard limits
• Sixth: Switch to the browser version — if all else fails on older hardware

Conclusion

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. In this video, I explained why Microsoft Teams uses so much memory and showed several practical ways to reduce its RAM usage.

We covered how to clear the Teams cache, disable auto-start, turn off read receipts, adjust Windows virtual memory, use the browser version of Teams, and keep Teams updated for better performance.

If Microsoft Teams is slowing down your computer, try these methods one by one and see which works best for your system. Even small changes can make a big difference, especially on devices with limited RAM.

Also, you may like:

• 15 Best Practices For Microsoft Teams
• Create a Team in Microsoft Teams
• Create a Group in Microsoft Teams
• Send a Microsoft Teams Invite