After Effects Out of Memory / Unable to Allocate Memory Error

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Reduce memory pressure

   Copy steps
   1. Preferences > Memory & Performance: untick Multi-Frame Rendering
   2. Reserve more RAM for other applications
   3. Edit > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache before rendering
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Find the culprit

   Copy steps
   1. Note the frame the error occurs on and disable effects there
   2. Pre-render heavy precomps
   3. Lower resolution on huge layers
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Render outside the UI

   Copy steps
   1. Use aerender or Media Encoder
   2. Close other apps and retry
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

'Unable to allocate X MB of memory' or out-of-memory during preview or render, sometimes succeeding on retry.

Why it happens

• Multi-Frame Rendering spawning too many processes
• Not enough RAM reserved for other apps
• Effects creating very large frame buffers
• Memory leaks or GPU VRAM exhaustion from plugins

This guide also covers

• after effects out of memory
• after effects unable to allocate memory
• after effects not enough memory render

The same problem in other apps

All not loading, error messages & connection guides →

• DaVinci Resolve "GPU Memory Is Full" Error (DaVinci Resolve)
• Blender CUDA / OptiX Error: Kernel Compilation Failed (Blender)

Other Adobe After Effects errors

• After Effects Preview Not Playing or RAM Preview Slow
• After Effects Render Failed in Media Encoder (Error Compiling Movie)
• After Effects Error: Crash / Can't Continue (GPU or Graphics Driver Issue)
• After Effects GPU Acceleration Not Available / Display Acceleration Disabled
• After Effects Missing Fonts or Missing Effects/Plugins
• After Effects Audio Out of Sync After Render
• After Effects Expression Error (Expression Disabled / Object of Type Found)
• After Effects Disk Cache Full or Won't Clear