WordPress 6.6.x RAM usage

To go right to the point: once you update WordPress from 6.5.x to 6.6.x (the latest & greatest version at the time of writing), you can expect to see about a 20% increase in the usage of RAM of your hosting server.

Table Of Contents (T.O.C.):

1. Increased RAM usage after updating WordPress to 6.6.x
2. Why does RAM usage matter?
3. Appendix: What are RAM and vCPU?

1. Increased RAM usage after updating WordPress to 6.6.x

These are my stats as an average for about 20 WordPress websites – with 2 WooCommerce stores and the rest being blog/info sites (some with few visitors, some with many visits):

Keep this in mind if your hosting server is near the limit.

This has been a long trend, with new software versions (not just WordPress) having greater resource demands (usually both CPU and RAM). Still, I think it’s worth noting, especially since this increase seems to be a bit higher compared to usage hikes over the past version updates (I’ve been running WordPress for about ten years now).

– T.O.C. –

2. Why does RAM usage matter?

Why does it matter? Because, when a WordPress website runs out of RAM, it will just stop working. Well, to be more precise, you can see one of these usually:

• White Screen of Death (WSOD): The website displays a blank white page, with no error message. This occurs because the server is unable to allocate memory for PHP processes.
• Error Messages: If error reporting is enabled, visitors might see messages like:
  “Fatal error: Allowed memory size of x bytes exhausted” followed by a trace of the error.
  “Internal Server Error” (HTTP 500) may also appear if the server cannot handle the request.
• Database Connection Error: If the database server also runs out of memory, users may see a “Error establishing a database connection” message (in that case caused by the lack of RAM, not by you improperly configuring your WordPress DB name & password etc.).

– T.O.C. –

3. Appendix: What are RAM and vCPU?

I’ve explained this with some good, novice-friendly analogies in separate articles:

• What is a vCPU?
• RAM: Your Computer’s Overworked Coffee Shop
  This article was written in the context of your desktop/laptop PC, but the same principle goes for your hosting server.
  Note (just to avoid any confusion):
  increasing your PC’s RAM does not help with your hosting server resources (those of us who do tech. support know that there are no stupid questions 🙂 ).

– T.O.C. –

Author

Relja Novović

Relja is an avid cyclist, a pretty good bike mechanic, and a professional computer systems administrator – with decades of experience in both those fields (computers and bikes 🙂 ). Relja Novović’s credentials and a short biography