Configure Kibana memory
Self Managed
Kibana has a default memory limit that scales based on total memory available. In some scenarios, such as large reporting jobs, detection rules, managing alerting workflows, or working with SLOs, it may make sense to tweak memory limits to meet more specific performance requirements.
A limit can be defined by setting --max-old-space-size in the node.options config file found inside the kibana/config folder or any other folder configured with the environment variable KBN_PATH_CONF. For example, in the Debian-based system, the folder is /etc/kibana.
The option accepts a limit in MB:
--max-old-space-size=2048
In orchestrated environments like Elastic Cloud Hosted, Elastic Cloud Enterprise, or Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes, you should not override Kibana’s default memory limit using --max-old-space-size. Instead, set the desired Kibana memory size at the deployment level. This automatically adjusts the container’s memory allocation and ensures more consistent and predictable performance.