Horrible RAM macbook air

I agree with ku4hx regarding Chrome's insatiable appetite for Mac RAM resources.

If you suspect there's something going on in the background on your Mac, I'd suggest the following:

• If you have any anti-virus, "cleaner", "optimizer" apps installed, use the respective manufacturers' uninstallers to get rid of them. They simply cause more problems than they prevent.
• Reboot your Mac in Safe mode and see if anything changes.
• Download/install/run an excellent app Etrecheck Here. This app has uncovered issues for a great deal of visitors to these forums and allowed them to get their Macs running good again. Some tips for Etrecheck:
  • When you install it, make sure you allow full disk access so it can check everything.
  • After your report's been generated, copy the entire report to the Clipboard.
  • Return to this thread and post your report by clicking on the Additional Text icon (third from the right in the bottom of the Reply window) and paste the report.

After posting your report here, several of us will most likely go thru it and offer advice on correcting certain issues.

Hope this helps.

Chrome is a know huge memory hog.

I suggest you use Firefox as an alternate browser if Safari isn't your choice.