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Fix: WordPress Memory Exhausted Error – Increase PHP Memory

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Are you seeing an allowed memory size exhausted error in WordPress? This is one of the most common WordPress errors, and you can easily fix it by increasing the php memory limit in WordPress. In this article, we will show you how to fix WordPress memory exhausted error by increasing PHP memory.

Fix: WordPress Memory Exhausted Error – Increase PHP Memory

What is WordPress Memory Exhausted Error?

WordPress is written in PHP, which is a server-side programming language. Every website needs a WordPress hosting server for it to function properly.

Web servers are just like any other computer. They need memory to efficiently run multiple applications at the same time. Server administrators allocate specific memory size to different applications including PHP.

When your WordPress code requires more memory than the default allocated memory, you get to see this error.

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 2348617 bytes) in /home4/xxx/public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php on line xxx

Memory exhausted error displayed on a WordPress site

By default, WordPress automatically tries to increase PHP memory limit if it is less than 64MB. However, 64MB is often not high enough.

Having said that, let’s see how to easily increase PHP memory limit in WordPress to avoid memory exhausted error.

Increase PHP Memory Limit in WordPress

First you need to edit the wp-config.php file on your WordPress site. It is located in your WordPress site’s root folder, and you will need to use an FTP client or file manager in your web hosting control panel.

Next, you need to paste this code in wp-config.php file just before the line that says ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging.’

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

This code tells WordPress to increase the PHP memory limit to 256MB.

Once you are done, you need to save your changes and upload your wp-config.php file back to your server.

You can now visit your WordPress site and memory exhausted error should disappear now.

If you are new to WordPress, then take a look at our beginners guide on how to copy and paste code from the web.

We also have a step by step guide on how to find and edit wp-config.php file.

Note: If this solution does not work for you, then this means your web hosting service provider does not allow WordPress to increase PHP memory limit. You will need to ask your web hosting provider to increase your PHP memory limit manually.

That’s all we hope this article helped you solve WordPress memory exhausted error by increasing PHP memory limit. You may also want to see our step-by-step beginner’s guide to troubleshooting WordPress errors.

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Reader Interactions

437 CommentsLeave a Reply

  2. Hi,

    Thank you for this awesome website. I got this in the error log after adding this code.
    [26-Apr-2022 02:45:31 UTC] PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’ – assumed ‘‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’’ (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /wp-config.php on line x

    Is this a problem? Should I remove the code?

    Reply

    • That would only be an error for future versions of PHP. This solution should only be a temporary fix and your hosting provider should be able to assist with the root cause of the issue.

      Reply

      Admin

  3. Thank you! You folks rock. This solved my problem. WPBeginner is my go-to website for learning new things about WordPress, even though I’m not a beginner.

    Reply

  4. “Once you are done, you need to save your changes and upload your wp-config.php file back to your server.”

    How again do you upload the file back to your server?

    Reply

    • You would need to use FTP or your host’s file manager again and there should be the option to upload and replace the file :)

      Reply

      Admin

  5. The changes are not having effects. We are still with 40MB and the site does not accept the changes. What should I do?

    Reply

    • As we state at the end of the article, if our recommendations do not work, please reach out to your hosting provider as they may have set a limit that would override what you as a user can set.

      Reply

      Admin

  6. Really worked.

    I had white screen when I wanted to create a new post on PC browser. But worked on my phone.

    Thanks

    Reply

  8. Thank you for providing a straight forward solution to an error which occurred when I tried to update the php version from 7.1 to 7.4

    Reply

  9. Fantastic, thank you soooo much for this, simple straight talk.. excellent.. first problem solved … now got to learn more

    Reply

    • It can mean the site can take longer to notice issues if some arise but shouldn’t cause a major issue in general.

      Reply

      Admin

  11. I added the code problem is gone but a text “WP_MEMORY_LIMIT” has appeared in the top corner of logo. So what should I do about that?

    Reply

    • You would want to ensure you added the code snippet correctly as it is likely showing that code thinking it is text.

      Reply

      Admin

  12. “First you need to edit the wp-config.php file on your WordPress site. It is located in your WordPress site’s root folder, and you will need to use an FTP client or file manager in your web hosting control panel.”

    Simple! What does that mean? It is gobbledegook to me.

    Reply

  14. I’m new in WordPress and I’m trying to figure out, for a couple of days, why suddenly I get an error 500 and can’t save my edits. This helped solve my problem. Thank you so much!

    Reply

  20. This solution is not working for me, my website is hosted at AWS server and I have all the access, I have tried to set memory_limit in php.ini, wp-config and .htaccess. but still getting issue when accessing backend pages.

    Reply

    • You would want to reach out to the support for your hosting for what other options you have available with AWS

      Reply

      Admin

  24. Thanks so much! Was so worried when I had this fatal error, but this fix is just a piece of cake! :-)

    Reply

    • If our recommendations are not working, you would want to reach out to your hosting provider and they should be able to assist

      Reply

      Admin

  33. Hi, I had the memory exhausted message and I increased the wp memory limit to 12mb and it worked. Then a few days later I had the same error, so I had to increase the wp memory limit to 256mb and the message kept showing. I am currently on 1024mb, which seems excessive for a small website of 4 pages and a blog post of 15,000 words. Any suggestions how to resolve the issue or what might be causing it?

    Reply

    • You would want to reach out to your hosting provider and they can normally assist in finding the root of the issue for your specific site.

      Reply

      Admin

  37. My website has been hacked. Which is showing the homepage blank. In which the script has been injected, as well as the entire WordPress files. Database file is also affected.

    Please suggest any solution for this. What do i have to do next steps.

    Reply

  41. Hey. My website is doing well. but whenever i tried to edit any post my server memory and I/O exhaust

    Reply

    • If you reach out to your hosting provider they should be able to help prevent this error going forward

      Reply

      Admin

  42. It worked!! thanks a lot, I should say that if you are using control panel you can access and edit the file config,php within the same platform no need to dowload the file for editing.

    Reply

    • It depends on the hosting provider as not all have a file manager that they offer but thanks for sharing :)

      Reply

      Admin

  48. Thanks for this article, we’ve been having this problem too.

    Which setting takes priority?
    In WHM (MultiPHP INI Editor), memory_limit is set to 32M.
    In wp-config.php WP_MEMORY_LIMIT is set to 96M.

    Reply

  50. but what exactly is this wordpress memory limit, like how much amount of RAM should wp use on the server? can anyone please share about what this thing is?

    thanks

    Reply

    • The memory limit tells WordPress how large requests/files can be for individual tasks, this is not for your site’s RAM and your RAM usage would be determined by what is on your site.

      Reply

      Admin

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