Premiere Pro is one of the most popular video editing software out there. However, there are always questions around how much RAM you need to run Premiere Pro smoothly, and the most common is “can Premiere Pro run on 4GB RAM?”. 

Premiere Pro run on 4GB RAM

This article looks at if and how you can run Premiere Pro on 4GB RAM, and delve a little further into optimising Premiere Pro. 

Let’s jump straight into it. 

Does Premiere Pro use ram?

Yep, Premiere does use RAM. To edit your videos, you must have a minimum of 16GB of RAM, and 32GB of RAM if you’re looking to edit your videos professionally. 

16GB is the bare minimum; however, there are cases where you can edit with 8GB and 4GB of RAM. 

However, these cases are limited. If you’re using 4GB of RAM to edit your videos, you’ll only be able to edit short length footage at a low resolution.  

Can Premiere Pro run on 4GB RAM? 

Yes, it can. But there’s a huge downside. You will not be able to edit properly in Premiere Pro or any other video editing software

However, you will be editing small, low-resolution videos on 4GB RAM. It’s nowhere near enough the 16GB recommended to edit videos in Premiere Pro, or even at 8GB – the bare minimum. 

Depending on your needs for Premiere Pro, we recommend either getting a new PC or MAC or only editing low-resolution videos to get the best performance from Premiere Pro.

4GB RAM for video editing is incredibly low and will not cope with Premiere Pro versions such as Premiere Pro 2019, 2020 and 2021. 

How to run Premiere Pro on 4GB Ram?

As mentioned above, this is pretty limited, but it is possible! To run Premiere Pro on 4GB RAM, there are a few things you can do: 

  • Do not run multiple windows whilst working in Premiere Pro on 4GB of RAM. 
  • Make sure you have over 70% of your disk space free, if not, you’ll have even more trouble running this at a low resolution. 
  • Ensure your library is succinct and doesn’t contain too many files. Too many files at this low level of RAM, and you’ll experience issues with lag. 

If you follow these steps, you’ll be able to edit your footage at a low resolution and small file sizes with little interference.

Which Premiere Pro version is best for 4GB RAM? 

Honestly, you will need to head back to Premiere Pro 2014. You will still have a few performance-related issues even with this version of Premiere Pro. 

Ideally, you would only edit low to mid-level resolution videos as low memory size. This way, you will be able to edit your videos without any lag. However, it does mean you will be editing videos with low quality and shortened lengths. 

It’s not a viable option if you’re looking to edit videos for your YouTube channel. If you are a professional video editor or looking to become one, the quality and speed are not there, causing huge issues with workflow.

What’s the best export settings in Premiere Pro CC for YouTube?

How to optimise your 4GB PC for Adobe Premiere Pro

Here’s a couple of tips to help you optimize Premiere Pro when running on 4GB RAM:

  • Avoid using lots of special effects
  • Clear your disk space to ensure it’s as low as possible. 
  • Ensure you have no other programs running in the background. If you do, immediately exit them as this will give you issues.

If you avoid doing the above, this will help you reduce the work your computer has to put in to run Premiere Pro on 4GB of RAM. 

If you’re looking to optimize Premiere Pro in general, read the article we have linked to. It gives you a deep understanding of speeding up Premiere Pro and turning it into an efficient editing machine. 

We hope this article on “Can Premiere Pro run on 4GB of RAM?” was helpful to you. Let us know down below in the comments what you thought. Any other ideas for Premiere Pro articles, fire them our way! We’re always looking to help!

Happy editing!