VS Code High CPU Usage

How to fix it

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

1. 1. Find the busy process

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   1. Run Help > Open Process Explorer
   2. Look for extensionHost or a renderer with sustained high CPU
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Bisect your extensions

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   1. Open the Extensions view and click the ... menu
   2. Choose Extension Bisect and answer Good/Bad until it names the extension
   3. Update, configure or remove that extension
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Disable all extensions to test

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   1. Run Disable All Installed Extensions from the Command Palette
   2. If CPU drops, re-enable in groups
   Did this fix it? Yes No

4. 4. Exclude heavy folders

   1. Add node_modules, dist and build output to files.watcherExclude, files.exclude and search.exclude
   Did this fix it? Yes No

5. 5. Close extra windows and large tabs

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   1. Close windows you are not using
   2. Avoid opening multi-hundred-MB files
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

VS Code makes the fan spin, Code Helper or Extension Host sits at high CPU, typing lags.

Why it happens

• A misbehaving extension in the Extension Host
• File watcher scanning huge folders
• Very large workspaces or monorepos
• Search indexing node_modules and build output
• Many windows open with the same extensions

This guide also covers

• vs code high cpu usage
• code helper renderer high cpu
• vscode extension host high cpu

The same problem in other apps

All slow, laggy or resource-hungry guides →

• Why Is Neovim So Slow? (Startup Lag and Large Files) (Neovim)
• Cursor Slow, High CPU or Memory Usage (Cursor)

Other VS Code errors

• VS Code Terminal Not Working
• VS Code Python Interpreter Not Found
• VS Code IntelliSense Not Working
• VS Code High Memory Usage
• VS Code Extension Host Terminated Unexpectedly
• VS Code Extensions Not Loading or Installing
• VS Code 'code' Command Not Found
• VS Code Unable to Watch for File Changes (ENOSPC)