High RAM usage with normal stats in C-Panel… Any ideas?

My hosting plan’s memory usage is reaching its limit, but CPU, PHP workers, and throughput are all stable. Should I consider upgrading, or could this just be due to caching and CDN setups using up unutilized RAM? I read that hitting the RAM limit alone doesn’t always mean an upgrade is necessary.

Thoughts?

Is this for a single cPanel account? Also, how much RAM is allocated to your account, and what are your PHP settings?

Mary said:
Is this for a single cPanel account? Also, how much RAM is allocated to your account, and what are your PHP settings?

I’ve got 3000 MB RAM, and PHP typically uses 2 workers.

Are you running WordPress with Elementor or other visual builders? Also, do you have any security plugins like Wordfence? Those can use a lot of memory.

kharly said:
Are you running WordPress with Elementor or other visual builders? Also, do you have any security plugins like Wordfence? Those can use a lot of memory.

Yes, I’m using both Elementor and Wordfence for firewall.

@Everly
Try disabling Wordfence first to see if that reduces the RAM usage. Disabling Elementor might mess with your site layout, so maybe start with Wordfence, then check your RAM usage after a minute or two.

Monitor your traffic levels. If you have high traffic, that could explain the usage.

If traffic is low and you’re still hitting high RAM, it might be worth investigating further. Optimizing your site, cutting unnecessary plugins, and using caching could help a lot.

@NetNavigator
Yeah, but is there a general rule about how much RAM is needed based on page views per month?

Everly said:
@NetNavigator
Yeah, but is there a general rule about how much RAM is needed based on page views per month?

Hosts usually set RAM limits to balance cost and prevent overuse. If your site has occasional spikes, a bit more RAM is handy.

For smaller sites with light traffic, especially with caching and a CDN, you won’t need much RAM. But bigger, busy sites (like large e-commerce stores) need higher RAM.

Trial and error are your best bets to see if you’re hitting the limits.

It’s been a while since I used cPanel, but with Linux hosting, a lot of RAM can go to system caches. A CDN doesn’t affect this directly since it’s a separate service.

If you’re not seeing performance issues, you’re probably fine for now.

@oliviamartin
No performance issues, but I’d rather not wait until it’s too late!

Any major updates or new plugins recently? Those can sometimes drive up RAM usage.

Kiernan said:
Any major updates or new plugins recently? Those can sometimes drive up RAM usage.

No new plugins or updates. Only the traffic has increased a bit.