6 Things to Know About RAM for Excel and Power Query

16GB is a noticeable upgrade from 8GB For large Excel files and Power Query, 16GB will feel much faster and more stable than 8GB.

32GB is the sweet spot for heavy users If you regularly work with spreadsheets over 100MB or complex data models, 32GB prevents memory limits and crashes.

Excel is a memory hog Power Query loads tables into memory, and large datasets can eat through 16GB faster than you expect.

You may still see “Not enough memory” errors with 16GB Really chunky queries or multiple open workbooks can trigger these errors even with 16GB.

Get 32GB if your laptop can’t be upgraded later Future-you will appreciate the headroom, since you can’t add more RAM later.

Start with 16GB if you can upgrade later If you’re on a desktop or a laptop with swappable RAM, 16GB is a good baseline to start with.