If your Mac is:
- Showing a spinning beach ball
- Displaying "Your system has run out of application memory."
- Lagging while typing
- Taking 10+ seconds to switch apps
You may be running out of available RAM. But here's the important part:
👉 Not every slow Mac means you "need more memory."
👉 macOS uses memory aggressively by design.
This guide shows you:
- How to verify whether RAM is actually the problem
- What numbers indicate real memory pressure
- What actions immediately help free up RAM on your Mac
- When you should consider upgrading (and when you shouldn't) the RAM
Consequently, you'll stop the spinning wheel on Mac, unfreeze your Mac, and speed up the performance.
Step 1 - Check if RAM is actually the bottleneck
Before quitting apps randomly to clear the RAM on your Mac, confirm the issue.
How to check RAM usage
- Press Command + Space.
- Type Activity Monitor, open it, and go to the Memory tab.
Now, look at two things:
1️⃣ Memory Pressure (bottom graph)
- Green → Normal
- Yellow → Memory is under stress
- Red → System is struggling
If it stays yellow/red for more than 5–10 minutes during normal work, you likely need intervention.
2️⃣ Swap Used
Swap is disk space used as temporary RAM.
As a general rule:
- 0–1 GB → Normal
- 1–2 GB → Heavy usage
- 2+ GB → Performance impact likely
If Swap Used exceeds 2GB and the Mac feels slow, memory is probably your issue.
Step 2 - Identify what is consuming a lot of RAM
In Activity Monitor:
Sort by the Memory column. Look for:
- One app consuming 2GB+ alone
- An app whose memory keeps increasing over time (possible leak)
- Background processes you don't recognize
Now you can act surgically, not blindly.
Step 3 - Quick ways to free RAM (Ranked by effectiveness)
After ensuring that your Mac doesn't have enough memory and what eats the RAM, you can go about freeing up more RAM.
Use the professional RAM boosting tool
This is the easiest way. Professional tools like iBoysoft Cleaner can help you free up RAM on your Mac with one click. With it, you don't even need to analyze what takes up the large amounts of memory on your Mac.
Here's how:
- Install and open iBoysoft Cleaner.
- Select "More Utilities."
- In the Memory Boost section, click "Start Now."
- Wait a few seconds and get more memory.
Quit heavy or idle apps
If an app is not in use but is consuming significant memory:
- Select it in Activity Monitor.
- Click the ❌ button.
- Choose "Force Quit."
This is effective when:
- One or two apps dominate usage
- Swap Used drops immediately after quitting
If nothing changes, the issue is system-wide, not app-specific.
Close redundant app windows and web browser tabs
For the rest of the running apps, you need to close the duplicate or useless windows or merge them.
For example, in Finder, move the cursor to the Apple navigation bar and select Window > Merge All Windows. Or, you can close them one by one.
For a web browser, like Safari, Firefox, or Chrome, close the useless tabs and keep no more than five tabs.
As a practical benchmark:
10–15 tabs: 1–2GB RAM
20+ tabs: Often 3GB+
Close unused windows and tabs and observe:
- Does Swap Used drop?
- Does Memory Pressure return to green?
If yes, your workflow is simply exceeding available RAM.
Restart your Mac (Quick system refresh)
If you are not dealing with heavy work on Mac now, you can try to save your editing documents and restart the computer.
Restarting the Mac:
- Clears inactive memory
- Resets swap usage
- Stops background processes
If your Mac shows:
- Swap Used above 3GB
- Memory Pressure in red
- Lag across all apps
A restart is usually the fastest fix.
However, if the issue returns immediately after a restart, you may have:
- A login item overload
- A memory leak
- Too little RAM for your workload
Remove login items (Long-term fix)
Apps that auto-start consume RAM before you even begin working.
Go to: System Settings > General > Login Items
Remove:
- Auto-launchers
- Cloud sync tools you don't need
- Helper processes for apps you rarely use
This reduces baseline memory usage.
Proceed Software Update
If:
- A system process consumes growing memory
- The issue began after a macOS update
- Many users report similar problems
Check for updates and update your Mac:
- Open the Apple menu > System Preferences > Software Update.
- Click Update Now or Upgrade Now.
Note: What does not usually help: ❌ Desktop icons using massive RAM
While Finder windows use memory, normal desktop icons are not a major RAM drain unless thousands are present. Clutter affects visual load more than memory pressure.
What is the difference between memory and storage on a Mac?
This is an overview of the differences between memory and storage on Mac, including their definitions, usage, speed, etc. Read more >>
When do you actually need to add more RAM
It is hard to add more RAM to a Mac computer.
Because modern Mac machines have non-removable memory. The RAM on a modern Mac is soldered to the motherboard, such as Apple Silicon Macs.
So, there's no chance to add more RAM to your Mac, unless you'd like to pay a lot to change the motherboard.
Consider upgrading if:
- You consistently use 20+ browser tabs
- You edit 4K video or large RAW images
- You run virtual machines
- Swap Used exceeds 3GB daily
General guidance:
- 8GB: Light productivity
- 16GB: Multitasking + creative work
- 32GB+ → Professional workloads
My thoughts
Clearing RAM on Mac is not about blindly quitting apps.
It's about observing Memory Pressure, watching Swap Used, identifying abnormal patterns, and acting with precision.
The macOS is designed to use memory aggressively; that's normal. The real problem begins when memory pressure stays high, and swap usage grows persistently. Understand the signals, and you'll know exactly when to intervene and when to ignore them.
FAQs
- Q1. What is RAM?
-
A
RAM (Random Access Memory) is a small amount of memory in a computer. It is used to store ongoing processes or temporary files like the data generated from running programs or the operating system.
- Q2. What happens if your RAM is full?
-
A
If your Mac had used the majority of RAM, it would perform abnormally. For example, the Mac runs slowly with a spinning wheel, apps become unresponsive, the message 'Your system has run out of application memory' pops up, the cursor lags while typing, etc.
- Q3. How much RAM do you need?
-
A
There's no definite amount of RAM you need. Commonly, the more programs (especially memory-consuming apps) that your Mac is running, the more memory they will use. Consequently, you need more RAM. For regular task proceeding, 8GB is enough. If you want to use a Mac for gaming, video clips, or image processing, better use a Mac with 16GB memory.