Self-hosters: Rebuild Discourse to reduce RAM usage

News and Events Announcements

AI-generated summary

Discourse has introduced improvements to memory sharing between container processes, resulting in reduced RAM usage for self-hosters. tgxworld reports that internal tests show a drop from approximately 1.9 GB to 1.3 GB after the update. The changes are available on the main branch and release branches 2026.9, 2026.8, and 2026.7.

Community members have shared positive feedback and real-world results. merefield and fearlessfrog expressed appreciation for the update. Editor0732 noted a reduction from 11.8G to 10.5G, while Fahriar_Akash highlighted the benefit for VPS instances with limited RAM. scavin provided detailed metrics, showing a 15% reduction (from ~2.8 GB to ~2.45 GB) that remained stable over five days. However, NateDhaliwal cautioned that 1GB RAM may no longer be viable for modern usage.

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We’ve improved how Discourse shares memory between the processes running inside its container, reducing the amount of RAM it needs.

Here’s an example from one of our internal containers. Before the change, memory usage reached around 1.9 GB. After deploying the improvement, it has generally stayed around the baseline of 1.3 GB.

Screenshot 2026-10-01 at 12.54.21 PM
Screenshot 2026-10-01 at 12.54.21 PM1920×574 118 KB

The improvement is available on main and the 2026.9, 2026.8, and 2026.7 release branches.

Savings will vary between sites. Once you’ve rebuilt, let us know how your RAM usage changes!

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This was much needed, thank you!

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image1009×340 25.5 KB

11.8G → 10.5G :content:

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That’s cool. :wink:
Will be great for VPS with less ram.

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Unfortunately I don’t think 1GB RAM is still viable these days :frowning: .

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Seems a little better - thanks!

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After rebuilding my Discourse container, Pitchfork memory usage dropped from about 2.7–2.8 GB to 2.3–2.45 GB, a reduction of roughly 15% (~400 MB), and remained stable after five days.

The chart was generated with AI based on my monitoring data.

Discourse Memory Usage Before vs After Rebuild Rebuild
Discourse Memory Usage Before vs After Rebuild Rebuild1774×887 265 KB

4 Likes