Steam on Ubuntu 25.04 is using an excessive amount of system memory while idle. After launching Steam and leaving it on the Library or Store page, total RAM usage is around 4.2GB. Most of this is from multiple "steamwebhelper" processes, with one process alone using around 2.4GB.
This happens immediately after startup, even with no downloads, no games running, and no chat windows open. The memory use does not reduce over time.
I expected Steam to use a small amount of memory when idle, but the current behaviour makes it consume several gigabytes just to display the library interface. It appears that the web-based UI (SteamWebHelper/Chromium) is not releasing or limiting memory properly.
System information:
Distro: Ubuntu 25.04 (GNOME 48, Wayland)
Kernel: Linux 6.14.0-33-generic
Steam build: Latest stable (October 2025)
CPU: Ryzen 5 7600X
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9060XT 16GB
RAM: 48GB DDR5
Driver: Mesa (AMDGPU)
Logs are attached as steam-logs.tar.gz.
Steps for reproducing this issue:
Start Steam on Ubuntu 25.04 (Wayland session).
Log in and remain on the Library or Store page without launching any games.
Open a system monitor and observe that one or more steamwebhelper processes consume 2GB+ each, totalling around 4GB of RAM.
Expected result: Steam should use minimal memory when idle.
Actual result: Steam uses 4GB+ of RAM while doing nothing.
Your system information
steam-logs.tar.gz
Steam on Ubuntu 25.04 is using an excessive amount of system memory while idle. After launching Steam and leaving it on the Library or Store page, total RAM usage is around 4.2GB. Most of this is from multiple "steamwebhelper" processes, with one process alone using around 2.4GB.
This happens immediately after startup, even with no downloads, no games running, and no chat windows open. The memory use does not reduce over time.
I expected Steam to use a small amount of memory when idle, but the current behaviour makes it consume several gigabytes just to display the library interface. It appears that the web-based UI (SteamWebHelper/Chromium) is not releasing or limiting memory properly.
System information:
Distro: Ubuntu 25.04 (GNOME 48, Wayland)
Kernel: Linux 6.14.0-33-generic
Steam build: Latest stable (October 2025)
CPU: Ryzen 5 7600X
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9060XT 16GB
RAM: 48GB DDR5
Driver: Mesa (AMDGPU)
Logs are attached as steam-logs.tar.gz.
Steps for reproducing this issue:
Start Steam on Ubuntu 25.04 (Wayland session).
Log in and remain on the Library or Store page without launching any games.
Open a system monitor and observe that one or more steamwebhelper processes consume 2GB+ each, totalling around 4GB of RAM.
Expected result: Steam should use minimal memory when idle.
Actual result: Steam uses 4GB+ of RAM while doing nothing.