Cursor IDE is using a lot of memory - ( bug or issue ?)

Support Bug Reports
,
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Core IDE / Memory Management & Performance

Describe the Bug

Cursor IDE repeatedly experiences abnormal memory usage and memory leak warnings even during idle or lightweight editing sessions. A popup warning prompts to “Capture Snapshot”, but the editor freezes immediately, rendering the snapshot button non-responsive. The entire application hangs completely once or twice per hour, requiring a forced termination via Windows Task Manager (End Task).

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open Cursor IDE with any standard project/workspace.
  2. Perform normal low-overhead development tasks or let the IDE idle.
  3. Observe memory usage gradually increasing until the high memory warning appears.
  4. Attempt to click “Capture Snapshot” on the notification popup.
  5. Cursor becomes completely unresponsive and freezes.

The issue is intermittent, but it happens approximately once or twice per hour.

**
Expected Behavior**

Cursor should maintain stable memory consumption during regular editing sessions, handle background tasks without freezing the main process, and successfully capture a performance snapshot if a warning is shown.

**
Screenshots**

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image337×100 4.42 KB

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image775×723 25.3 KB

Operating System

Windows 11 Home Single Language 64-bit

**
Version Information**

Version: 3.20.21 (user setup)
VS Code Extension API: 1.128.0
Commit: f09fca384ceca23f7bf21f9c23655b162641d740
Date: 2026-09-13T19:02:51.781Z
Layout: IDE
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 42.10.0
Chromium: 148.0.7778.280
Node.js: 24.18.1
V8: 14.8.178.38-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.291
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Hardware: Intel Core i7-14700HX (2.10 GHz), 32.0 GB RAM

Additional Information

The issue appears to be specific to Cursor rather than the project itself.

I have tested the same project in VS Code and Antigravity and do not experience the same memory consumption or freezing behavior.

The most problematic part is that by the time Cursor becomes unresponsive, I am often unable to capture a snapshot or gather additional diagnostic information because the IDE itself is already frozen.

I would appreciate it if this could be investigated as a possible memory leak or runaway memory usage issue.

**
Does this stop you from using Cursor?**

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

2

Hi there!

We detected that this may be a bug report, so we’ve moved your post to the Bug Reports category.

To help us investigate and fix this faster, could you edit your original post to include the details from the template below?

Bug Report Template - Click to expand

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

  • Editor, Tab & Chat (autocomplete, Composer, in-editor agent)
  • Terminal & commands
  • Models, pricing & API keys (availability, Auto/Max, BYOK/Bedrock)
  • MCP & tools
  • Cloud Agents & Automations (cursor.com/agents, scheduled/event)
  • BugBot & Code Review
  • Cursor CLI
  • Cursor Mobile
  • Remote (SSH / Dev Containers / WSL)
  • Account, billing & login
  • Something else…

Describe the Bug
A clear and concise description of what the bug is.

Steps to Reproduce
How can you reproduce this bug? We have a much better chance at fixing issues if we can reproduce them!

  1. …
  2. …
  3. …

Expected Behavior
What is meant to happen here that isn’t working correctly?

Screenshots / Screen Recordings
If applicable, attach images or videos (.jpg, .png, .gif, .mp4, .mov)

Operating System

  • Windows 10/11
  • MacOS
  • Linux

Version Information

  • For Cursor IDE: Menu → About Cursor → Copy
  • For Cursor CLI: Run agent about in your terminal
IDE:
Version: 2.xx.x
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: ......

CLI:
CLI Version 2026.01.17-d239e66

For AI issues: which model did you use?
Model name (e.g., Sonnet 4, Tab…)

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled
Request ID: f9a7046a-279b-47e5-ab48-6e8dc12daba1
For Background Agent issues, also post the ID: bc-…

Additional Information
Add any other context about the problem here.

Does this stop you from using Cursor?

  • Yes - Cursor is unusable
  • Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor
  • No - Cursor works, but with this issue

The more details you provide, the easier it is for us to reproduce and fix the issue. Thanks!

7

Hi @abhinav, thanks for the report and the Process Explorer screenshot.

The number in that warning is the memory of Cursor’s main window. On your machine, it is jumping from under 2 GB to 6 GB or more within about a minute. By the time the warning shows, the window is already too large for that snapshot to finish, which is why Capture Snapshot appears to do nothing and the window freezes. Capturing a bit earlier gives us something we can actually look at. Could you try this when you get a chance?

  1. Restart Cursor and work normally.
  2. Open Help, then Open Process Explorer, and watch the largest Cursor.exe entry.
  3. When that entry is somewhere between 1.5 GB and 2.5 GB, before the warning appears, press Ctrl+Shift+P and run “Capture and Send Debugging Data”.
  4. In the list that appears, keep the items that are already ticked, and also tick “Renderer heap snapshot”, then press Enter. The window may freeze for up to a minute while it captures.
  5. If it says the data was sent, reply here with the time you did it and your timezone. If it says the data was saved locally, use “Reveal in File Explorer” and attach the zip.

One more thing that would help: in Process Explorer, on the Live tab, find the node.exe entry (it was using over 1 GB in your screenshot) and tell us what its command line shows when you hover over it.

8

I’m experiencing the same issue.

PixPin_2026-09-18_14-46-38
PixPin_2026-09-18_14-46-382082×1310 317 KB

PixPin_2026-09-18_14-46-17
PixPin_2026-09-18_14-46-172082×1310 309 KB

9

Looks like I got lucky: out of dozens of attempts, it only managed to create the snapshot twice. The files are over the 30 MB upload limit, so here’s a Google Drive link instead:

One upload succeeded at: 2:43 PM (UTC+05:30)

image
debugging-data-1789722743212.zip (809.0 KB)

10

have you found any solution ?