How can I make Headless Chromium use less CPU and memory?

Running headless Chromium can be resource-intensive, especially when running multiple instances or on machines with limited resources. Here are proven strategies to significantly reduce CPU and memory usage:

Core Launch Flags

The most impactful optimization is using the right Chrome launch arguments:

Python (Selenium):

from selenium import webdriver

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument('--headless=new')  # Use new headless mode (Chrome 109+)
options.add_argument('--no-sandbox')
options.add_argument('--disable-dev-shm-usage')
options.add_argument('--disable-gpu')
options.add_argument('--disable-extensions')
options.add_argument('--disable-plugins')
options.add_argument('--disable-images')
options.add_argument('--disable-javascript')  # If JS not needed
options.add_argument('--disable-web-security')
options.add_argument('--disable-features=TranslateUI')
options.add_argument('--disable-ipc-flooding-protection')
options.add_argument('--memory-pressure-off')

# Set window size to reduce rendering overhead
options.add_argument('--window-size=800,600')

driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)

Node.js (Puppeteer):

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
  headless: 'new',
  args: [
    '--no-sandbox',
    '--disable-setuid-sandbox',
    '--disable-dev-shm-usage',
    '--disable-accelerated-2d-canvas',
    '--no-first-run',
    '--no-zygote',
    '--single-process',
    '--disable-gpu',
    '--disable-background-timer-throttling',
    '--disable-backgrounding-occluded-windows',
    '--disable-renderer-backgrounding',
    '--memory-pressure-off'
  ]
});

Memory Management

Set Memory Limits

Limit Chrome's memory usage with system-level controls:

# Using systemd-run (Linux)
systemd-run --scope -p MemoryLimit=512M your-chrome-command

# Using Docker
docker run --memory=512m your-chrome-image

# Using ulimit
ulimit -v 524288  # 512MB in KB

Configure Page Cache

# Disable page cache to reduce memory usage
prefs = {
    'profile.default_content_setting_values.notifications': 2,
    'profile.default_content_settings.popups': 0,
    'profile.managed_default_content_settings.images': 2,
    'disk-cache-size': 0,
    'media-cache-size': 0
}
options.add_experimental_option('prefs', prefs)

Resource Blocking

Block unnecessary content to reduce CPU and bandwidth usage:

Python (Selenium with Chrome DevTools Protocol):

import json

def block_resources(driver):
    # Enable Network domain
    driver.execute_cdp_cmd('Network.enable', {})

    # Block images, stylesheets, fonts
    driver.execute_cdp_cmd('Network.setRequestInterception', {
        'patterns': [
            {'urlPattern': '*.css', 'resourceType': 'Stylesheet'},
            {'urlPattern': '*.jpg', 'resourceType': 'Image'},
            {'urlPattern': '*.jpeg', 'resourceType': 'Image'},
            {'urlPattern': '*.png', 'resourceType': 'Image'},
            {'urlPattern': '*.gif', 'resourceType': 'Image'},
            {'urlPattern': '*.woff*', 'resourceType': 'Font'},
        ]
    })

# Use after creating driver
block_resources(driver)

Puppeteer Resource Blocking:

const page = await browser.newPage();

// Block images, CSS, fonts
await page.setRequestInterception(true);
page.on('request', (req) => {
  const resourceType = req.resourceType();
  if (['image', 'stylesheet', 'font'].includes(resourceType)) {
    req.abort();
  } else {
    req.continue();
  }
});

Connection Pooling & Reuse

Instead of creating new browser instances, reuse connections:

Python Connection Pool:

class ChromiumPool:
    def __init__(self, pool_size=3):
        self.pool = []
        self.pool_size = pool_size
        self._initialize_pool()

    def _initialize_pool(self):
        for _ in range(self.pool_size):
            options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
            # Add your optimized arguments here
            driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
            self.pool.append(driver)

    def get_driver(self):
        return self.pool.pop() if self.pool else None

    def return_driver(self, driver):
        # Clear cookies/cache before returning
        driver.delete_all_cookies()
        self.pool.append(driver)

# Usage
pool = ChromiumPool(pool_size=5)
driver = pool.get_driver()
# Use driver...
pool.return_driver(driver)

Monitoring & Limits

Process Monitoring

import psutil
import os

def monitor_chrome_usage():
    chrome_processes = []
    for proc in psutil.process_iter(['pid', 'name', 'memory_info', 'cpu_percent']):
        if 'chrome' in proc.info['name'].lower():
            chrome_processes.append(proc)

    total_memory = sum(p.info['memory_info'].rss for p in chrome_processes)
    total_cpu = sum(p.info['cpu_percent'] for p in chrome_processes)

    print(f"Chrome Memory: {total_memory / 1024 / 1024:.2f} MB")
    print(f"Chrome CPU: {total_cpu:.2f}%")
    return total_memory, total_cpu

# Kill high-memory processes
def kill_high_memory_chrome(max_memory_mb=500):
    for proc in psutil.process_iter(['pid', 'name', 'memory_info']):
        if 'chrome' in proc.info['name'].lower():
            memory_mb = proc.info['memory_info'].rss / 1024 / 1024
            if memory_mb > max_memory_mb:
                proc.kill()

Timeout Management

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

# Set aggressive timeouts
driver.set_page_load_timeout(10)  # 10 seconds max
driver.implicitly_wait(5)

# Use explicit waits for specific elements only
try:
    element = WebDriverWait(driver, 5).until(
        EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, "target-element"))
    )
except TimeoutException:
    # Handle timeout gracefully
    pass

Alternative Lightweight Options

For simple HTML parsing without JavaScript:

1. requests-html (Python):

from requests_html import HTMLSession

session = HTMLSession()
session.browser  # Only create browser when needed
r = session.get('https://example.com')
r.html.render(timeout=10, keep_page=True)  # Render only when needed
print(r.html.text)

2. Chrome in Single Process Mode:

options.add_argument('--single-process')  # Use with caution
options.add_argument('--no-zygote')

Environment-Specific Optimizations

Docker Container

# Use minimal base image
FROM zenika/alpine-chrome:latest

# Set memory limits
ENV CHROME_ARGS="--memory-pressure-off --max_old_space_size=256"

# Run with limited resources
RUN addgroup -g 1001 -S nodejs && adduser -S nodejs -u 1001
USER nodejs

CI/CD Environment

# GitHub Actions example
- name: Run headless Chrome tests
  run: |
    export CHROME_FLAGS="--headless --no-sandbox --disable-gpu --disable-dev-shm-usage"
    npm test
  env:
    NODE_OPTIONS: "--max-old-space-size=512"

Performance Best Practices

Batch Operations: Process multiple URLs in the same browser session
Page Lifecycle: Use page.goto() with waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded' instead of networkidle
Tab Management: Close tabs immediately after use with page.close()
Clean Up: Always call browser.close() in finally blocks
Resource Monitoring: Implement memory/CPU monitoring and automatic restart

These optimizations can reduce headless Chromium's resource usage by 50-80% while maintaining functionality for most web scraping tasks.

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