Cursor 2.2.43 suddenly eats all RAM (20GB+) and freezes laptop

[Alexdevquant (Alex)]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

On Windows 11 (Lenovo Legion 5, 32GB RAM), Cursor v2.2.43 keeps spiking to 20–22GB RAM during AI tasks (Continue / long prompts). When it happens, the whole system freezes and I have to force-restart. It looks like a memory leak / runaway process.

Anyone else seeing this on 2.2.43? Any workaround?

Specs: Windows 11 (build 26200), Intel + NVIDIA, 32GB RAM.

Steps to Reproduce

On Windows 10/11, install and open Cursor

Open a large repo (~[SIZE] GB, ~[FILES] files; Python/FastAPI + React; includes node_modules/, .venv/, build artifacts).

Ensure Codebase Indexing is enabled (default).

Wait for indexing to start / complete, then open Agent/Chat and ask it to perform a broad task touching multiple folders (e.g., refactor, search across codebase, or multi-file edits).

Observe in Task Manager that Cursor’s memory usage increases rapidly to GB and continues growing.

Cursor UI becomes slow/unresponsive; eventually the system freezes and/or Windows restarts.

Deleting Cursor’s local index reduces memory temporarily, but the issue returns when the index rebuilds.

Expected

Cursor should keep memory usage bounded and remain responsive while indexing and using Agent features.

Actual

Cursor memory grows quickly (appears unbounded), UI becomes unresponsive, and the laptop freezes/restarts.

Expected Behavior

On Windows 10/11, install and open Cursor v[VERSION].

Open a large repo (~[SIZE] GB, ~[FILES] files; Python/FastAPI + React; includes node_modules/, .venv/, build artifacts).

Ensure Codebase Indexing is enabled (default).

Wait for indexing to start / complete, then open Agent/Chat and ask it to perform a broad task touching multiple folders (e.g., refactor, search across codebase, or multi-file edits).

Observe in Task Manager that Cursor’s memory usage increases rapidly to GB and continues growing.

Cursor UI becomes slow/unresponsive; eventually the system freezes and/or Windows restarts.

Deleting Cursor’s local index reduces memory temporarily, but the issue returns when the index rebuilds.

Expected

Cursor should keep memory usage bounded and remain responsive while indexing and using Agent features.

Actual

Cursor memory grows quickly (appears unbounded), UI becomes unresponsive, and the laptop freezes/restarts.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.2.43 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 32cfbe848b35d9eb320980195985450f244b3030
Date: 2025-12-19T06:06:44.644Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Auto , Composer 1

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable and Windows becomes unusable as well cause no more RAM remains !

[deanrie]

Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue with a memory leak in the Chat/Agent UI, and the team is working on a fix.

Workarounds:

1. Restart Cursor every 2-3 hours of active Agent usage.
2. Close unused Chat tabs.

For debugging, please share:

1. Open CTRL+Shift+P > Developer: Open Process Explorer before the next freeze. Which process is using the most memory?
2. How many Chat tabs do you usually have open at the same time?
3. Which extensions are installed? (CTRL+Shift+P > Extensions: Show Installed Extensions)

This info will help the team work on the fix.

[Alexdevquant (Alex)]

Hi thanks for the reply.

Would it be helpful if I build a small Cursor/VS Code extension (or external helper) that periodically samples Cursor’s process memory/CPU (via Process Explorer / OS APIs), plus basic context (open chat tabs count, workspace size, installed extensions), and writes a timestamped JSONL log? Then I can share the log bundle with you;