Why Chrome Devours Memory—and How Manifest V3 Extensions Cut Usage by 95%

Chrome's multi-process architecture, while ensuring security and stability, introduces significant memory overhead by spawning separate processes for each tab and extension. Legacy Manifest V2 extensions compound this issue through persistent background scripts that continuously drain RAM. Manifest V3's event-driven Service Workers eliminate chronic memory waste by loading only when necessary, enabling developers to create lightweight extensions that reduce Chrome's memory footprint by up to 95%.