High RAM usage in Next.js development server

[alexandereyyey-prog]

Summary

Next.js dev server is using very high RAM while running locall

Additional information

Expected:
Memory usage should stay stable.

Actual:
RAM keeps increasing and my system becomes slow.

Additional information:
Next.js version: 16.2.6  
Node.js version: 24.14.1  
OS: windows11

Example

No response

[kuldeeprajput-dev]

This could be related to the dev server file watcher, Turbopack/Webpack rebuilds, or Node.js memory behavior.

A few things to check:

Maintainer edit: Start with https://nextjs.org/docs/app/guides/local-development, it contains the recommendations below and more!

• Restart the dev server and check if RAM keeps increasing without any file changes.
• Delete .next and run the dev server again.
• Check if antivirus/Windows Defender is scanning the project folder.
• Try creating a small reproduction repo, because high RAM can depend a lot on project size and dependencies.

Also, please share the command you are using, package manager, and whether this happens with Turbopack or Webpack.

[alexandereyyey-prog]

help full

[icyJoseph]

@alexandereyyey-prog what was your actual issue? It'd be more helpful to post a summary of what you actually ran into, and how you solved it.

[alexandereyyey-prog]

Thanks for asking @icyJoseph . The actual issue was on my Windows side.

Windows Search Indexer was using a lot of RAM/CPU while the Next.js dev server was also running, so it looked like Next.js was the main problem. I cleared the Next.js cache by deleting the .next folder and then restarted the dev server.

After that, the RAM usage became normal again and the project started working fine.

So in my case it was not really a Next.js bug. It was mainly a local cache/indexing issue on Windows.

@kuldeeprajput-dev Thanks to kuldeep also , I was not aware that Windows Search Indexer could cause high RAM/CPU usage while the Next.js dev server was running.

[icyJoseph]

Where did they mention Window Search Indexer? Is that part of what the docs show, https://nextjs.org/docs/app/guides/local-development, the Anti-virus and such? or is it a different product? and if deleting .next worked, then whose to say it won't come back? Did you put .next folders as excluded in Windows Search Indexer, is that possible?

[alexandereyyey-prog]

@icyJoseph Thanks sir for clarifying .

You’re right, the docs mention antivirus/Defender, not Windows Search Indexer. That part was from my own Windows-side debugging.

Deleting .next only fixed it for now, so I’ll also check Defender and indexing exclusions to make sure it doesn’t come back.