Windows 11's built-in Weather app uses more than 1 GB of RAM

Windows 11's built-in Weather app can consume more than 1 GB of RAM while displaying a simple forecast, according to tests published by Windows Latest and similar observations by Wccftech. The reported memory footprint is roughly five times larger than that of Apple's native Weather app on macOS under comparable conditions.

How much memory the app uses

Windows Latest recorded the Weather app exceeding 1.2 GB of RAM during a forecast view without any intensive interaction from the user. Wccftech observed similar behavior: usage typically starts at around 1 GB, drops to roughly 500–600 MB when idle, and climbs to 1.5–1.6 GB during actions such as zooming or navigating the interface. On a PC with 8 GB of RAM, the app alone can occupy nearly 20% of system memory. Apple's Weather app reportedly stays below 250 MB under similar conditions.

Why the footprint is so large

The reason is architectural. The Weather app is not a fully native Windows application; it is essentially the MSN Weather web app built on Microsoft's WebView2 framework. Task Manager shows several Chromium-based subprocesses running at once, which explains the unusually high RAM usage.

What it means for users

On high-end machines with 32 GB of RAM or more the issue is unlikely to be noticeable, but entry-level systems can feel the difference. On 8 GB or even 16 GB PCs, launching the app may push Windows to rely more heavily on the page file, making the system feel less responsive. Weather also embeds sponsored content directly into the forecast feed, with ads styled to resemble the weather cards around them. Microsoft licenses weather data from several providers, including Foreca and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

The findings sit awkwardly with Microsoft's recent promises to make Windows 11 leaner on low-end hardware. The company has said it intends to build more fully native applications, although whether MSN-branded apps such as Weather will be rebuilt with WinUI remains unclear.