Are you seeing an allowed memory size exhausted error message 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 the WordPress memory exhausted error by increasing the PHP memory limit.
What Is the WordPress Memory Exhausted Error?
WordPress is written in PHP, which is a server-side programming language. Additionally, 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 will see this error message:
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
By default, WordPress automatically tries to increase the 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 the PHP memory limit in WordPress to avoid the memory exhausted error.
Increase the 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 the 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.
Alternatively, you can use WPCode to insert this code snippet. It is the best WordPress code plugin that allows you to insert code snippets into your site’s files without editing them directly.
For more details, please see our guide on how to easily add custom code in WordPress.
You can now visit your WordPress site, and the memory exhausted error should have disappeared.
We also have a step-by-step guide on how to find and edit the 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 the PHP memory limit. This is common if you are using shared hosting. You will need to ask your web hosting provider if they can increase your WordPress memory limit manually.
We hope this article helped you solve the WordPress memory exhausted error by increasing the PHP memory limit. You may also want to see our step-by-step beginner’s guide to troubleshooting WordPress errors, along with our expert picks for the best WordPress plugins to grow your site.
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Michelle says
It’s 1:53AM and because of you, I can sleep in peace now. THANK YOU!
Chintan Dave says
define( ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’ ); worked all time. Thank a lot for the solution.
mohammed says
you guys are amazing you solved most of the issues i encounter since started working with WordPress.
Siddhartha Gautam says
It worked for me. Thanks!
Haley McCalister says
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 22 bytes) in /home/nels1max/public_html/ngifts/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php on line 286
I’ve tried to expand my limit but it didn’t work. When I refresh the page, it changes what’s after “/wp-includes/” and the line number, but none of those files have a place to expand the size. Any tips?
Jordan Casey says
Try increasing it to 512M. There still isn’t enough memory for whatever theme you’re running. Good luck! P.S. make sure that you have more than 512M of memory. Ask your hosting provider.
Marcel Dusek says
Great! It worked. Thank you so much !!!
Vikas Yadav says
Thank you so much for sharing this. Helped me a lot!
Ian says
It works! Thanks for the suggestion. But I have a question. I find another article said that changes WP_MEMORY_LIMIT in default-constants.php. Is there any different between this two methods?
Jeff C says
I have the same question. Can you explain the difference? Why use one over the other?
WPBeginner Support says
The constants file is for settings that don’t change, editing the config file is where you would make changes that can be reverted later when you are no longer receiving the error.
Admin
Joseph Sintum says
Thank you very much for this fix.
I was already freaking out…
Ahad Arzi says
Thanks man. iT’S REALLY HELPS
Heather says
Wow, this worked like a charm and it was easy peasy! Thanks so much!
Peter says
Thank you very much! It works
Jane says
I looked everywhere for a solution and even called the host searching for an answer. Fixed it PERFECTLY! Thanks so very much!
Ton says
Thanks a lot! My problem was solved in 5 minutes!!
kartik says
Dear All,
we are getting this error
let me know the solution on it?
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 2097152 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 8192 bytes) in /home/f036v20tz3th/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5276
Regards
KARTIK
Desmond Lai says
Great! It works well. Thank you so much.
Richie says
Thanks for the tips, fixed with the memory line in wp-config
Shehan Disanayake says
This was very helpful. Thanks a lot.
Jaime says
Thanks so much guys for this article! What is the diference from changing wp_memory_limit (wp-config.php) and memory_limit (php.ini)??? Are the same??
This memory limit is for individual sessions or entire wordpress site?? I ask because if i had 200 visitors in minutes.. i have to go damn higher with this number?? Or try to keep it low??? Hope you can help me with this!
Alexander says
Thank you so much!!!
Jeremy says
Thank you guys so much for this! I spent the last couple hours trying to figure this out.
Thanks again!
Rick Hunter says
Excellent. Thanks so much. Changed to 1024 and it worked like a charm.
Ujenk says
When I changed with 512 M it was failed then I put it define( ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘2000M’ );
And it works well.
/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */
Joshua says
if that code doesn’t work, rephrase it to
//increase WP Memory Limit
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’);
Néo says
It works.
Pascal says
Could this be set to 512MB by any chance?
I am hosted by OVH
Thank you!
WPBeginner Support says
Yes it can be.
Admin
suraj says
worked like a charm and loads faster .. but sure would like to knw the root cause and fix the issue there
suraj says
you can change but it maxed out the memory and gave frequent errors of the same, editing posts on wordpress.com also had errors and tags and categories did not populate there.
in WP it seems to work but it lagged considerably.
If you have more memory allocated then you can do it. I am gonna do half of memory allocated by hosting. check cpanel for that.
Dee says
Thank you so much! I’ve been waiting for my developer to respond in order to fix it when I could have just done it myself! So much time wasted, thank you for publishing this!!
Brent says
Thanks, you da MAN! Fixed my problem
Yakin Shah says
This is awesome. just 2minutes, and I got my website back to working. Thanks!
Krista says
You ROCK! Easy to follow and it worked! I am web-illiterate and was able to fix it in one go. THANK YOU!
Silvero says
Awesome, thank you, you saved my site
Thiago says
You guys are great. Thank you so much for the help!
It worked!
Sue Hanson says
Thanks a lot for this article. It really helped me out. I was able to fix this problem and get onto building my site.
Lulu says
Beautiful, simple fix, thanks so much!!
Morgan Leahy says
Before doing any of this…be sure to check your root install directory. I had a blank ‘index.htm’ file that was left by my hosting service, and I completely overlooked it.
Jill says
Thank you so much for posting this tutorial! It fixed my website so I could start breathing again!
zac says
Worked like a charm… Love the internet!
Dana Jewel says
Thank you so very, very much for sharing this tip.
Bharat M says
You are rocking men…
Every time I got an problem, I got it solution from here…
Thanks for the awesome article.
Karen Gusler says
Thank you!!!! This was a Godsend!!! While trying to troubleshoot why some emails are not being sent via our online form, I installed a plugin and it caused this error. My web site is back up and running!!!! Thank you again!
Renske says
By following these steps I have fixed the problem. Thank you SOOOOO much!
Enzo says
Excuse me. What could be the cause of this?
Jason Didner says
That fixed a number of problems! Being able to change themes; being able to save my widgets – great tip! Spent a lot of time looking for this solution.
Keshav says
Thanks a lot!
It works really nice for me.
Thank you so much.
Amir Khan says
Thanks a lot fixed my issue Successfully
aisha says
this doesn’t resolve my issue
plz now tell me what I can do ?
still error is there
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 268435456 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 4114136611 bytes) in C:\xampp\…\wp-includes\functions.php on line 5163
Joel says
I get this error quite often. And I am not sure why.
It comes from the function wp_is_stream(). I’m not sure where this is being used that is causing the error.
A bit of investigation showed that if you comment out wp_head() in your header.php file that solves the issue. More specifically, it is something hooked onto the ‘wp_head’ action, and I think one of the filters with priority of 10. Unfortunately, after getting this far, the error magically fixed itself and went away, so I wasn’t able to track down the exact function. Also, wp_is_stream() was only used in 3 or 4 places, so maybe you could find the culprit easier just by checking the usages of that function.
Brandon J says
This was amazing. I was skeptical at first since this was my first time ever doing something like this. I finally just went for it and it worked. Thank you so much.
Sahil gour says
Thank you so much for explaining everything. it works thanks
Sirisha says
This fixed my issue. Thank you for the well-explained article.
Shriram says
Thanks a lot, you saved me. You are my go-to site for most of my wordpress related problems!