For anyone running a Windows 11 laptop or desktop with 8GB or 16GB of RAM, that 105-minute reduction is more than just a trivial tweak to a settings menu. Instead of letting two dozen forgotten research tabs chew through system resources until mid-afternoon, Edge now puts background pages to sleep during the span of a coffee break. MakeUseOf also noted that this browser-level adjustment arrives alongside broader community observations around memory behavior following the Windows 11 26H2 update, though Microsoft's official Edge documentation focuses strictly on the browser's tab lifecycle rules.
What Changed in Edge—and How the Version Numbers Line Up
When reading Microsoft's release notes, the version numbers can look like a typo at first glance. In the October 15, 2026 update notes for Edge Stable 155.0.4283.60, Microsoft officially documented the change: starting with Microsoft Edge version 152.0.4188.0, the default Sleeping Tabs timer dropped from 2 hours (120 minutes) to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, Edge 152 continues to live on as the Extended Stable channel for enterprise environments (reaching build 152.0.4191.135 on October 15, 2026). Whether you are on the latest rapid-cadence Stable release or an enterprise Extended Stable ring, your browser is now operating under the 15-minute baseline unless you or your IT department previously customized the setting.
According to Microsoft Learn’s SleepingTabsTimeout policy documentation, the feature works on Windows and macOS when Sleeping Tabs is enabled (SleepingTabsEnabled is either enabled or left unconfigured, and the user has the setting turned on). When a background tab hits that 900-second (15-minute) mark of inactivity, Edge suspends it to free up RAM and CPU cycles for the active foreground window or other desktop applications.
The Hidden Override: How Energy Saver Changes the Math
Is 15 minutes always the exact moment your tab nods off? Not necessarily. Microsoft’s policy documentation reveals an important interaction between Sleeping Tabs and Energy Saver. When Edge’s Energy Saver mode is active, the browser automatically enforces whichever timeout is shorter between your Sleeping Tabs setting and the active Energy Saver threshold:
- Maximum savings mode: Energy Saver drops the timeout to 5 minutes.
- Standard active modes on low-memory PCs (under 6GB of RAM): Energy Saver uses a 15-minute timeout.
- Other active Energy Saver modes: Energy Saver uses a 30-minute timeout (meaning the new 15-minute Sleeping Tabs default now beats it to the punch).
Sleeping Tabs vs. Auto-Discard: Know the Difference
In browser terminology, "sleeping" and "discarding" are often lumped together, but Microsoft treats them as separate stages of tab management:
- Sleeping Tabs (
SleepingTabsTimeout): Suspends the background page's script execution and resource usage after the inactivity timer expires (now 15 minutes by default) so the tab stops draining CPU and memory while remaining in place. - Auto-Discard (
AutoDiscardSleepingTabsEnabled): Completely unloads the inactive background tab from memory so that it must reload from scratch when clicked. According to Microsoft Learn, auto-discard is also on by default (since Edge 120), but it operates on a much longer horizon: Edge only discards an eligible background tab after it has sat untouched in the background through three consecutive browsing sessions (where a new session is defined as using the browser more than 12 hours after the previous session started, or 18 hours on machines with 16GB or more of RAM).
Section Summary: Microsoft officially documented in the Edge 155.0.4283.60 release notes that builds from 152.0.4188.0 onward default to a 15-minute Sleeping Tabs timer instead of two hours. Energy Saver can shorten this further to 5 minutes in maximum mode, while full tab discarding remains a separate multi-session mechanism.
Edge vs. Chrome: Does This Actually Tempt Users Away?
MakeUseOf frames Edge's aggressive new default as a potential reason to rethink Google Chrome, noting that in one of MakeUseOf's own internal tests on Chrome, switching its memory management setting recovered roughly 4GB of RAM across 16 open tabs. While saving gigabytes of memory sounds enticing, any veteran PC user knows that raw RAM savings depend heavily on what is inside those tabs—16 tabs of heavy project-management dashboards and media streams behave very differently than 16 static documentation pages.
Does Google Chrome lack this capability? Not at all. Chrome has offered its own Memory Saver feature for years, accessible under Settings > Performance. However, the two browsers approach user control from different angles:
| Feature / Behavior | Microsoft Edge (Sleeping Tabs) | Google Chrome (Memory Saver) |
|---|---|---|
| Out-of-the-Box Default | On by default; 15-minute timer (900 seconds) | On by default; set to Balanced mode |
| Timing Controls | Exact time intervals: 30 sec, 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, 1 hr, 2 hrs, 3 hrs, 6 hrs, or 12 hrs | Three relative tiers: Moderate, Balanced, and Maximum |
| Site Exclusions | Supported via edge://settings/system/managePerformance | Supported via Always keep these sites active in Performance settings |
| Additional Ecosystem Hooks | Vertical tabs, Workspaces/Collections, Group Policy granular timer values | Seamless Google Workspace integration, broad cross-platform sync |
Rather than giving users a stopwatch, Google’s official Chrome documentation defines its three Memory Saver tiers by how quickly they react: Moderate waits longer before deactivating tabs, Balanced (the recommended default) uses what Google considers an optimal period based on system needs, and Maximum deactivates unused tabs after a shorter delay.
What Edge wins on here is predictability and out-of-the-box aggressiveness. Instead of forcing users to dig into Chrome's settings to switch from Balanced to Maximum, Edge applies a strict 15-minute clock right out of the gate—and if you don't like 15 minutes, you can dial it down to 30 seconds or push it back out to 12 hours.
Section Summary: Chrome already counters Edge with its own Memory Saver feature (offering Moderate, Balanced, and Maximum modes), so memory management alone won't force a mass migration. Edge’s real advantage is setting a transparent, aggressive 15-minute default timer without requiring a trip to the settings menu, while offering exact time-interval customization.
How to Customize Sleeping Tabs and Protect Important Web Apps
While aggressive tab suspension is great for keeping your system fans quiet, it can be frustrating if a background web app loses its connection or stops updating when you step away for 15 minutes. Browser makers build in automatic exceptions for obvious tasks like active audio/video playback, screen sharing, or partially filled forms, but custom enterprise portals and persistent web tools sometimes need a manual pass.
For Everyday Windows Users
If a specific website needs to stay awake all day—or if you want to change the 15-minute timer back to two hours—you can adjust it in less than a minute:
- Open Microsoft Edge and paste
edge://settings/system/managePerformancedirectly into the address bar, then press Enter (or navigate to Settings > System and performance > Performance). - Under the Save resources section, ensure Save resources with sleeping tabs is toggled on.
- Use the dropdown menu next to Put inactive tabs to sleep after the specified amount of time to choose your preferred interval (from 30 seconds up to 12 hours).
- To prevent a critical web app, dashboard, or communication tool from ever going to sleep, click Add next to Never put these sites to sleep and enter the site's URL.
For Enterprise IT Administrators
If you manage Windows workstations via Group Policy or Microsoft Intune and want to standardize tab behavior—either to maximize memory on 8GB fleet laptops or to stop line-of-business web apps from timing out—you can configure the SleepingTabsTimeout policy directly:
- Group Policy (ADMX) Path (Mandatory):
Administrative Templates/Microsoft Edge/Sleeping tabs settings - Group Policy (ADMX) Path (Recommended):
Administrative Templates/Microsoft Edge - Default Settings (users can override)/Sleeping tabs settings - Registry Path:
SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge(or\Recommendedfor user-overridable defaults) - Value Name:
SleepingTabsTimeout(REG_DWORD) - Supported Values (in seconds):
30(30 sec),300(5 min),900(15 min default),1800(30 min),3600(1 hr),7200(2 hrs),10800(3 hrs),21600(6 hrs), or43200(12 hrs).
Note that per Microsoft’s policy documentation, SleepingTabsTimeout supports dynamic policy refresh and per-profile configuration, though it does not apply to profiles signed in with a personal Microsoft account.
Section Summary: Both home users and IT administrators have full control over Edge's tab sleep behavior. Users can adjust the timer or whitelist essential URLs at edge://settings/system/managePerformance, while sysadmins can deploy exact second-based values across managed Windows devices via Group Policy or Registry keys.