Microsoft Word Has Insufficient Memory – How to Fix

By Lloyd Ingram Updated December 30, 2025

Quick Tips

Word failing to save a file due to insufficient memory is often due to corrupted files or settings.
While most third-party tools that deal with memory saving should be fine, most of them don’t really do much beyond what you can accomplish alone via Task Manager.
Make sure that you actually have space on your hard drive to save files.

If you encounter an error message notifying you that Word has insufficient memory when saving as PDF or trying to use a specific font, the issue might be temporary and solved by closing a few background items. However, if this persists, you may need to use additional fixes.

Fix 1: Reducing Background Memory Load to Prevent Word Has Insufficient Memory Issues

Generally, Word doesn’t have a large memory requirement, but other programs that you use alongside it might, with browsers being notorious for hogging RAM. But there are other, hidden processes that could be taking up precious memory, especially if you have an older PC.

Step 1. Right-click on the Taskbar and select “Task Manager” (you can also find it by right-clicking on the Start icon).

Step 2. In the “Processes” tab, click to sort by Memory usage.

Step 3. Right-click on any application that is using a lot of RAM but that you don’t need, then click “End task.” Repeat the process as needed.

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Step 3b. Browsers also have a separate Task Manager that allows you to close tabs that use a lot of memory. For Edge, this can be accessed by right-clicking the Edge tab bar and selecting “Browser task manager.”

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Step 4. If you want to reduce the background load, go back to the Windows Task Manager and click on the “Startup apps” tab. In there, right-click on any app that you installed but don’t want to use at all times, then click “Disable.”

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Fix 2: Changing the Default Word Template

In some cases, a corrupted or wrongly-set basic template can cause “Word has insufficient memory” errors when trying to save as other file types. You can check this by creating a new basic template.

Step 1. Hit “Win + R” to go to the Run console, then enter the following:

%appdata%

Step 2. Go into the “Microsoft” folder and find “Template.”

Step 3. Cut the “Normal.dotm” file from the folder and move it elsewhere.

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The next time you open Word, it will generate a blank template to use.

Fix 3: Disable Hardware Acceleration

Word can also use your graphics card to improve performance, but this has been known to cause issues. Note that this only applies to PCs that have a dedicated graphics card.

Step 1. Go to “File” then to “Options.”

Step 2. Open the “Advanced” tab, then scroll down to the “Display” section and check “Disable hardware graphics acceleration.”

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Step 3. Click on “OK.”

Step 4. Copy your file’s contents to Notepad, as you will need to restart Word (and if it can’t save the file you’ll lose it).

Fix 4: Remove Add-Ins or Repair Word

If you’ve modified your Word with a lot of add-ins, you might get a Word insufficient memory error due to a larger strain on the system. Remove add-ins one by one and restart Word until the issue is resolved, then make sure not to re-enable that add-in.

Alternatively, you can repair Word, which “reverts” it to factory settings.

Step 1. Search for “programs” in the search bar and select “Add or remove programs.”

Step 2. Find Microsoft Office, right-click on it, and select “Modify.” Notably, use the language version that you’re currently working in (as Office downloads more files for language packs).