Regular ChatGPT users often complain about a common issue: How a tab suddenly becomes sluggish after a long session of responses from the chatbot. It often frustrates users and forces them to start a new chat, which means feeding all the instructions, data, and information all over again. However, a new chat breaks the workflow, and the responses lack the details from the previous one.
The problem isn’t with ChatGPT, often it’s your browser. The ChatGPT interface keeps all the messages from the chats in your browser, and with more conversations piling up, your browser is forced to manage a massive chat history. For rendering and managing thousands of messages, the browser consumes a huge amount of RAM and CPU power, which can cause lag and slowdown.
A quick and temporary fix for this is to clear your browsing history to free up some memory or use the dedicated ChatGPT app. However, a free extension on Google Chrome Web Store called ChatGPT LightSession claims to handle this issue better.
All about ChatGPT LightSession, and how it works
The ChatGPT LightSession extension on Google Chrome hides old and invisible messages from your browser’s view, which frees up your computer’s memory. Instead of the whole chat, the browser now focuses on rendering the most recent messages, resulting in quick responses in the chat. This doesn’t mean the extension deletes anything from ChatGPT’s memory. The chatbot retains the full context of the entire thread, and you can refer to any previous point during the chat.
For those concerned about privacy, according to the developer’s notes, ChatGPT LightSession runs locally on your device. The developer claims that the data “doesn’t go to any external servers” and that he doesn’t “collect analytics or telemetry” in the extension’s description. However, it’s always wise to review permissions for browser extensions and read developer notes, as extensions often have the permission to read or modify web content. If lagging ChatGPT responses are affecting your productivity in work or personal projects, this extension should be an effective tool to save time and effort.
