Sleeping Tabs is a Microsoft Edge performance feature that pauses tabs you have not used recently. It frees memory and CPU while keeping the tab visible, then wakes the page when you return to it. A sleeping tab often looks faded in the tab bar.
Does this affect you?
Use this for Microsoft Edge on Windows or Mac when background tabs fade, reload after being idle, or lose their live state after you click back to them.
Check whether Sleeping Tabs is on and how it is set
Confirm the current timing before changing anything.
- Open Edge.
- Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and choose Settings.
- Select System and performance in the left sidebar.
- Under Optimize performance, check Save resources with sleeping tabs.
- Look at Put tabs to sleep after this much inactive time to see how long Edge waits before sleeping a tab.
If a tab has been idle longer than that setting, Edge may fade it and reload or refresh it when you return.
Keep specific sites from ever sleeping
Use this for pages where a reload could interrupt work.
- Open Settings > System and performance.
- Scroll to Always keep these sites active.
- Click Add.
- Enter or paste the website address.
- Press Enter or confirm the addition.
Sites on this list stay active even after long periods in the background, which helps with email drafts, forms, live dashboards, timers, and web apps that should not reload.
Turn Sleeping Tabs off entirely
Use this when you prefer every tab to remain fully active and have enough memory and battery to spare.
- Open Settings > System and performance.
- Turn off Save resources with sleeping tabs.
With Sleeping Tabs disabled, Edge keeps background tabs running, which can raise memory and CPU use when many tabs are open.
More control
Efficiency mode is related but separate
Efficiency mode also lives under System and performance. It limits overall browser background activity, especially on laptops. You can use Efficiency mode and Sleeping Tabs together, or change them independently.
Recognize a sleeping tab
Sleeping tabs are usually faded or grayed compared with active tabs. Hovering the tab may show a sleeping label. This is different from a muted tab, which has a speaker icon, or a crashed tab.
Battery life can improve
On laptops, keeping Sleeping Tabs enabled with a shorter inactive time can help battery life when you tend to leave dozens of tabs open.
Sources
- Microsoft Support – Save resources with Sleeping tabs in Microsoft Edge (2025)
- Microsoft Edge Blog – Efficiency mode and Sleeping tabs explained (2025)
- Microsoft Support – Manage performance settings in Microsoft Edge (2025)