vscode copilot high memory usage 2.5gb 650 files

if VS Code with GitHub Copilot is using high memory, here are some practical ways to reduce its memory footprint and stabilize performance:

Table of Contents

🔍 Why Copilot Might Use High Memory

Large projects (700+ files as we mentioned).
Multiple tabs open in VS Code.
Background IntelliSense, syntax analysis, and Copilot suggestion generation.
Extension conflicts or too many active extensions. disabled all only one copilot
Copilot chat or inline suggestions generating frequently.

Insufficient system resources: (while calude ain response 9.9gb totally used by other apps and 2.5gb ram 700 files reasonable i guess)

✅ Steps to Reduce GitHub Copilot & VS Code Memory Usage

1. Disable Copilot When Not Needed

If you’re not actively using it:

Press Ctrl+Shift+P → “Copilot: Disable”

Or disable inline suggestions only:

2. Limit Copilot Trigger Scope

Add this in settings.json:

You can toggle these on only when needed.

3. Exclude Large Folders from VS Code

Prevent VS Code (and Copilot) from indexing unnecessary files:

4. Increase VS Code Memory Limit (If Needed)

If you must work with large projects:

Open VS Code config file:

bash

code --max-memory=4096

(replace 4096 with desired MB, e.g. 4096MB = 4GB)

5. Remove Unused Extensions

Go to Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X) → Sort by memory usage or manually disable unnecessary ones.

6. Use Workspace Settings

Avoid global Copilot activation for all folders:

Use .vscode/settings.json in specific projects to control Copilot usage only where needed.

7. Keep VS Code and Copilot Updated

Old versions may have memory leaks or inefficiencies. Run:

And update if outdated.

🧹 Optional: Use Lighter Themes & Disable Unused Features

Use minimal themes (e.g., Dracula, One Dark).
Disable breadcrumbs, minimap, and timeline views:

🧠 Bonus: Monitor Memory Usage

Open VS Code’s Process Explorer:

Help → Toggle Developer Tools → Performance tab.
Or press Ctrl+Shift+Esc → go to Memory tab.

VS Code Not responding fix memory delete cache bad idea.

Last but not least clear the vscode cache (slower performance)

Make Visual Studio Code Less RAM Consuming & Faster

Visual Studio Code’s auto-completion or intellisense actually uses a Universal LSP(Language Server Protocol) package which are some bunch of file watchers.

settings and click the file edit icon located at top right corner of the window in the tab-bar.

Now there past the following code to exclude the unimportant & literally never used files & folders from file watchers..

//Add following lines of code to exclude the files & folders which aren't important for watchers to look for changes...
{
  //exludes fies & folders in search indexing
"search.exclude": {
    "**/node_modules": true,
    "**/bower_components": true,
    "**/env": true,
    "**/venv": true
  },
  //exludes fies & folders for watcher service
"files.watcherExclude": {
    "**/.git/objects/**": true,
    "**/.git/subtree-cache/**": true,
    "**/node_modules/**": true,
    "**/env/**": true,
    "**/venv/**": true,
    "env-*": true
  },
}

here