This tutorial shows you memory options in Netbeans IDE and how you change heap size and JVM memory settings to avoid memory heap size errors.

How to assign more memory to Netbeans?

To assign more memory to Netbeans, Please follow the steps.

  • Open the ’network.cnffile in any text editor. This file is located in the NetBeans installation folder. Location isC:\Program Files\NetBeans-14\netbeans\etc`

Update or add these values to key netbeans_default_options.

  • -J-Xms512m : Initial heap size
  • -J-Xmx1024m : Maximum Heap size allocated

Netbeans memory usage indicator

In Netbeans, Memory usage is shown to the user on top of the code editor.

It shows in the format of 200/400MB

First number: Current RAM usage of NetBeans Editor, It always keeps on changing its value all the time. Second Number: Total RAM allocated for Netbeans editor.

We can change these values using -Xms( initial memory) and -Xmx(maximum memory ) for JVM using the below command with the java command.

java -Xms256m -Xmx2048m

How to change memory settings in Netbeans for a Project.

To change memory settings such as initial, and heap memory, Please follow the below steps

  • Open Java project in Netbeans Editor
  • Right-click on the Java project, Select Properties
  • It opens the Project Properties window
  • Select Run on the left side
  • Enter the following values on the Right side
    • VM Options: -Xms128m -Xmx1024m
  • Save the changes