How to Add Swap Memory to your Chrome OS Device

Many of us that use Chrome, probably have about 10 more tabs open at any time. In fact, right now I have about 15 open, split between two windows. And because of that, Chrome uses a ton of RAM. Which is one major downside for Chromebooks since they - for the most part - come with 2GB of RAM. The Chromebook Pixel does come with 4GB of RAM though. When the amount of RAM you have goes down, you'll start to see lag, and some tabs will refresh when you activate them. Which that in itself really frustrates me. But luckily there's somewhat of a work around. It's called Swap Memory. I have it enabled on both my Samsung Chromebook (the ARM-one) and the Chromebook Pixel.


Here's how we active SWAP. Press Ctrl + Alt + t, which brings you to terminal then type:

swap enable 2000

This line of code creates a 2GB SWAP partition on your Chromebook's SSD, adjusting the number will change the SWAP size. The team behind Chrome and Chrome OS recommend 2GB. To fully activate it you'll need to restart your Chrome device. This is said to be an experimental feature, but I've been using it for months with no problems at all.

To disable SWAP, you'll just need to go back into terminal (Ctrl + Alt + t), and type:

swap disable

This is said to work on all Chrome devices. Including the CR-48, the Chromebox, and everything else that's available out there. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments down below.