TabCost

Know which tab slows Chrome. Identify resource-heavy tabs and hibernate idle ones to keep your browser fast.

Key Features

TabCost is a lightweight Chrome extension that helps you quickly identify "expensive" tabs so Chrome stays responsive.

It highlights tabs that consume high memory or show high activity and lets you hibernate (discard) idle tabs with one click.

Per-tab memory estimate (JS heap) and activity estimate

Filters: All / Heavy / Idle 10m+

Search tabs by title or URL

One-click Hibernate for selected tabs

↑ / ↓ navigate

Enter hibernate

Esc clear

Ctrl/Cmd + K search

TabCost computes per-tab metrics using local browser performance signals. All processing happens locally on your device.

Memory estimate: uses performance.memory (when available) to estimate per-tab JavaScript heap usage.

Activity estimate: uses Performance APIs (e.g., long tasks) to estimate how "busy" a tab is.

1. Install TabCost from the Chrome Web Store.

2. Click the TabCost icon in your browser toolbar.

3. Use Search to find tabs quickly.

4. Use filters: All / Heavy / Idle 10m+.

5. Select a tab and click Hibernate (or press Enter).

6. Use Clean Up to hibernate eligible idle heavy tabs.

Some restricted pages (e.g., chrome:// pages and system pages) may show unavailable metrics.

TabCost shows JS heap memory, which is useful but not the same as total memory shown in Chrome Task Manager.

All processing happens locally on your device. TabCost does not transmit user data to external servers.

TabCost does not collect, store, sell, or share personal data.

TabCost does not transmit user data to external servers.

All processing happens locally on your device.

Tab metadata such as title, URL, favicon URL, and tab state (active/audible/discarded).

Performance signals such as JavaScript heap usage via performance.memory (when available).

Activity signals using Performance APIs (e.g., long tasks).

This data is used only to display metrics inside the extension popup and compute cost scores.